FRENCH TROOPER 







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Book f JjJ±J. 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF 
A FRENCH TROOPER, 1914-15 




Night Charge of the 22nd Dragoons, Sept. io-ii, 19 14. 



IMPRESSIONS AND 
EXPERIENCES OF A 
FRENCH TROOPER 

1914-1915 

BY 

CHRISTIAN MALLET 



NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

1916 



y 



Copyright, 191 6 

BY 

E. P. DUTTON & CO. 




TJbe "ftnfcJsetbocfter ipreaa, IRew HJorft 

MAY 13 1916 
©CI.A431051 



Hn /iDemorfam 

TO MY CAPTAIN 
COUNT J. DE TARRAGON 

AND 

TO MY TWO COMRADES 
2nd LIEUT. MAGRIN and 2nd LIEUT. CLERE 

WITH WHOM 

MANY PAGES OF THIS BOOK ARE CONCERNED 

WHO FELL 

ALL THREE ON THE FIELD OF HONOUR 

IN DEFENCE 

OF THEIR COUNTRY 

"Dragons que Rome eut pris pour des Legionnaires." 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Frontispiece ..... 9 
The 22nd Regiment of Dragoons . . 11 



I. — Mobilisation — Farewells — We leave 

Rheims ...... 13 

II. — Across the Border into Belgium — Life 
on Active Service from Day to Day 
— After the Germans had Passed 
through — The Retreat ... 26 

III. — How we Crossed the German Lines — 
The Charge of Gilocourt — The Escape 
in the Forest of Compiegne . . 43 

IV.— Verberie the Centre of the Rally— The 
Epic of a Young Girl — Mass in the 
Open Air — From Day to Day . . 74 

V. — The Two Glorious Days of Staden . 97 

VI. — The Funeral of Lord Roberts — Nieuport- 
Ville — In the Trenches — Ypres and 
the Neighbouring Sectors — I Transfer 
to the Line . . . . .110 

VII. — The Attack at Loos .... 144 

Index 165 



FRONTISPIECE 

This picture by Carrey represents the night charge 
of a squadron of 22nd Dragoons against German 
trenches near Compiegne. During the night of 
September 9th, the squadron leader, who had received 
orders to endeavour to intercept and capture a large 
enemy convoy, suddenly came under a hot fire from 
German trenches. In the darkness it was impossible 
to choose his country, but the position before him 
must be attacked, and, signalling the charge, he 
led his squadron at the trenches. As the first line rose 
to the jump the Germans scuttled out in panic, only 
to be ridden down and destroyed. With the 22nd are 
shown two troopers of the 4th Dragoon Guards, 
belonging to the 2nd British Cavalry Brigade. Both 
had fought at Mons, but during the retirement had 
lost their regiment, and after wandering about for 
some days fallen in with the 22nd Dragoons and 
fought for some weeks in their ranks. Whilst still 
under heavy fire, one of these Englishmen, throwing 
the reins of his horse to his companion, dismounted 
and ran to and rescued a French trooper whose 
horse had fallen dead and pinned him to the ground; 
on rejoining their own regiment their French command- 
ing officer gave them the following certificate of 
service : 

"I, the undersigned, certify that T and 

B , troopers, belonging to the 4th Dragoon 



io IMPRESSIONS OF A FRENCH TROOPER 

Guards, lost themselves in the neighbourhood of 
Peronne on the 20th August, and joined up with my 
squadron, and have since then formed part of it and 
engaged in all its operations. On the night September 
10- 1 1 my squadron received orders to capture a 
German convoy, and found itself surrounded by 
the retreating enemy. 

"T and B took part in a charge by 

night against entrenched infantry, and helped in the 
fighting on the outskirts of the forest of Compiegne. 

"They are both men of fine courage and high 
training, and have given me every satisfaction. 
"(Signed) A. De S., 

" Captain, 22nd Dragoons." 

(Le Temps.) 



THE 22ND REGIMENT OF DRAGOONS 



AUSTERLITZ . 


. 1805 


JENA 


. 1806 


EYLAU . 


. 1807 


OPORTO 


. 1809 



The 22nd Regiment of Dragoons was raised in 1635 
under the name of "The Orleans Regiment, " and 
took part from 1639 to 1756 in all the great wars in 
which the French were engaged before the Revolution. 
From 1793 to 18 14 the regiment was continually at 
work, first under the Republic and then in Napoleon's 
armies. 

It saw service in the Army of the Sambre and 
Meuse, 1 794-1 796; the Army of the Rhine, 1800; 
the Grande- Armee, 1805; in the war in Spain, 
1808-1813; the Campaign in Saxony, 18 13; the 
Campaign in France, 18 14. 

The regiment was disbanded in May, 1815, and was 
not raised again until September, 1873. 



11 



Impressions and Experiences of a 
French Trooper, 19 14-15 



CHAPTER I 

MOBILISATION — FAREWELLS — WE LEAVE 
RHEIMS 

(~\F all my experiences, of all the unforget- 
^^ table memories which the war has woven 
with threads of fire unquenchable in my mind, 
of all the hours of feverish expectancy, joy, 
pain, anguish and glorious action, none stands 
out — nor ever will — more clearly in my 
recollection than the day when we marched 
out of Rheims. Nothing remains, except a 
confusion of disconnected memories of the 
days of waiting and of expectation, days never- 
theless when one's heart beat fast and loud. 
A bugle-call sounding the "fall-in" lifts the 
curtain on a new act in which, the empty 
years behind us, we are spurring our horses 
on into the eternal battle between life and 

death. 

13 



14 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

On the thirtieth of July, 19 14, I did not 
believe in the possibility either of war or of 
mobilisation — nor even of partial mobilisation 
— and I refused to let my thoughts dwell on 
it. 

The good folk of Rheims, excited and 
anxious, gathered from time to time in dense 
crowds outside the building of the Societe 
Generale, on the walls of which the latest 
telegrams were posted up, then broke up into 
knots of people who discussed the situation 
with anxiety and even consternation. At 
the Lion d'Or, where I turned in for dinner on 
the terrace . under the very shadow of the 
cathedral, I called for a bottle of Pommery, 
saying jocularly that I must just once more 
drink champagne; a message telephoned from 
a big Paris newspaper reassured me, and in 
the peaceful quiet of a fine summer's night 
I returned to my quarters with a light heart. 

As I was turning into bed I caught a 
glimpse through the barrack window of the 
two Gothic towers of the cathedral, standing 
high above the city as if in the act of blessing 
and guarding it. 

All was quiet: the silence was only broken 
from time to time by the cry of the swallows as 
they skimmed through the clear air. 

War, I repeated to myself, it is foolish even 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 15 

to think of, and this talk of war is but the 
outcome of some disordered pessimistic minds ; 
and with that I went to sleep on my hard little 
webbed bed ... for the last time. 

Towards midnight I woke with a start, as 
though someone had shaken me roughly. 
Yet all was still: the barracks were rapt in 
sleep. Near by me only the loud and heavy 
breathing of the twelve men who made up the 
number occupying the room could be heard, 
as I lay on my back, wide awake, waiting, 
for I now felt that the signal would surely 
come which should turn the barracks into a 
very hive of bees. 

Five minutes passed — perhaps ten — then a 
deafening bugle call which made the very 
walls vibrate, calling first the first squadron, 
growing in volume as it called the second, 
louder still the third, like the roar of some 
beast of prey as it summoned ours; then it 
died away as it got farther off across the 
barrack square where the fifth squadron was 
quartered. 

It was the call to arms. 

The sleepy troopers, half awake, sat up in 
their beds with a start— "Hulloa! — what? 
What is the matter? . . . Are we really 
mobilising?" 

Then followed the sound of heavy boots in 



16 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

the corridors, heavy knocks on the doors, the 
silence of the night was a thing of the past and 
had given place to deafening clatter. 

In a few seconds every man was on his feet 
without any clear idea as to what was forward. 
The sergeant-major called to me: "Mallet — 
run and warn the officers of the squadron to 
strap on their mess tins with their equipment 
and assemble in barracks as quickly as 
possible." 

So it's serious, is it? and in a flash the truth, 
the very reverse of what I had been trying to 
believe, forced itself upon me and paralysed 
all other power of thought. Whether it 
breaks out to-morrow or in a month's 
time, it is war — relentless war — that I seem 
to see like a living picture revealed. 

The impression masters my mind as I turn 
each corner of the dark streets and open 
spaces, and the cathedral with its twin towers, 
so peacefully standing there, is transformed 
into a giant fortress watching over the safety 
of the country-side. 

A man comes out of a house on the place and 
runs after me, I hear his heavy shoes striking 
the pavement behind me; breathless he blurts 
out the question, "Is war declared?" 

"War . . . yes . . . that is to say, I don't 
know." 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 17 

I continue on my way to carry out my orders 
with enough time left to run up to my own 
rooms and get some money and clean linen. 

I got back to barracks as dawn was spreading 
over the sky, and found our commandeered 
horses being brought in by civilians and 
soldiers in fatigue overalls. An elderly non- 
commissioned officer shrugged his shoulders 
and said in a low voice, "Commandeered 
horses being brought in already! — that does 
not look very healthy." 

At the time of the Agadir affair things did 
not get as far as that, and the incident forced 
itself on my mind as proof that war was 
inevitable. 

Packing and preparation were over and the 
men, waiting for orders, were wandering about 
the square, and in the canteen, which they 
filled — still half dark as it was — one heard 
shouts of joy and high-pitched voices telling 
the oldest and most threadbare stories. 

But the canteen-keeper — friend of us all — 
with red eyes and shaking voice, was talking 
of Bazeille, her own village, burned by the 
Germans in 1870, where her old father and 
mother still lived. She is horrified at the 
thought of another invasion of the soil of 
France. 

1 ' The Bosches here? No, indeed, Flora, you 



1 8 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

are talking wildly; never you doubt, we will 
send them to the right-about and back to 
Berlin at the point of our toes — give us another 
glass of white wine — the best — -that's better 
worth doing." 

"Well, well!" 

At the table where I sat with my own 
particular friends, all were in high spirits, all 
talking the greatest nonsense, becoming intoxi- 
cated with their own words as they romanced 
of heroic charges, of wonderful forced marches 
and highly fantastic battles ; I alone remained 
somewhat serious and heavy of heart, and 
abused myself for being less free of care than 
they in the face of this triumph of manliness 
and youthful high spirits; yet in spite of 
myself, I watched them, these comrades of 
mine, day in, day out, to whom I should 
become more closely allied still by war, and 
tried to pierce the mists of the future, grey 
and threatening, and to discern what was to 
be the fate of each. 

There they sat: Polignac, who was to be 
taken prisoner a short four weeks later, and 
who still languishes in a Westphalian fortress ; 
Laperrade, who was to fall dead with a lance 
head through his chest as he defended his 
officer; Magrin, fated to die, when spring 
came, with a bullet through his heart; Clere, 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 19 

whom death was to claim three days after 
having heroically won his commission, and all 
the rest of them, too many to name here, but 
of all of whom I cherish in my heart a recollec- 
tion not only tender but full of pride that they 
were my friends. 

Yet the day passed in a fever of expectation 
and excitement. The smallest piece of news, 
or the greatest absurdity told by the latest 
man from the guard-room of the 5th, or the 
stables of the 2nd, or by "the adjutant's 
orderly," flew like the wind round the bar- 
racks, increased in volume, became distorted, 
took shape no one knew how and in the end 
was believed by all — until some still more 
ridiculous tale took its place. 

There were waggish fellows, too, who 
wandered from group to group with a serious 
look on their faces, saying, "Well, it's come 
now; I have just heard the Colonel give the 
order to stand to horses," and until evening, 
when we were again crowded inside the can- 
teen, it was the same hunger for news, the 
same excitement, the same desperate longing 
to know what was happening. 

Only at seven o'clock did we get the official 
news, and although it came as no surprise, the 
whole barrack was stunned by it. Squadron 
orders issued at seven o'clock gave us three 



20 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

hours to prepare to march, as prescribed by 
the rules governing the movements of covering 
troops, to which we belonged. In three hours 
we should be on the way to an unknown 
destination; to ourselves fell the honour of 
being the advance guard; to us the task 
of guarding and watching the frontiers whilst 
the rest of the army was mobilising; and with 
keen pride in the fact, we held up our heads 
and thrust out our chests, whilst our faces 
took on a look of confidence in our power to 
conquer. Even the humblest trooper seemed 
transfigured, and in that moment I realised, 
perhaps for the first time, the high soul of 
France. 

But the news soon spread beyond the 
barracks. Rheims, although some twenty 
minutes' walk away, somehow learned it, and 
almost immediately all the town flocked to 
the barrack gates. I say all the town because 
all classes together hurried there pell-mell 
— not only those with a brother or son or a 
friend amongst the troops about to set off, 
but those who were drawn by ties of friendship 
with the regiment, and those who came from 
mere curiosity. The crowd, which got larger 
and larger, beat upon the iron gates like waves 
breaking vast and black on a rock}^ shore. 
Old women came to give a last kiss to their 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 21 

sons; old men, too, pensioners who had 
fought in '70, whose hands trembled as they 
pressed those of their boys, distracted little 
shop girls who held their lovers passionately 
in their arms — silk frocks and broadcloth 
mingled together in one vast crowd swayed by 
deep emotion, brave and placid, though its 
heart was near breaking — every sob was stifled, 
every mouth drawn with sorrow yet tried to 
laugh, and it was cheerily that the last part- 
ings took place, the last touching and heartfelt 
"God speed" was said. 

How great a country to possess such 
children ! Soon the gates could no longer bar 
the passage of the crowd which swept like a 
torrent through the outer square, overwhelmed 
the sentries, and threatened to engulf every- 
thing. 

As the hour of departure grew nearer, the 
farewells became more animated. Then 
the bugles sounded through the barracks the 
order for "majors to join the Colonel," next 
captains and others of commissioned rank; 
there was a scurrying of officers to and fro 
before the orderly room, and Colonel Robillot 
himself could be seen standing on the door- 
step watching the scene with a look of pride 
and indulgence in his eyes. 

At nine o'clock, as I was standing some 



22 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

distance apart in a corner of the square with 
friends who had come to bid me a last farewell, 
a non-commissioned officer, touching me on 
the shoulder, warned me that my troop was 
about to fall in, and I had to break off my 
adieux. 

From that moment I was to think no more of 
myself. All was over with affairs that bound 
heart or fancy. The supreme moment had 
come when words no longer count, and when 
the eyes try to fill themselves with one last 
gaze upon those whom one is leaving — good- 
bye to family, to love, to self, to the joy of the 
living — all one's soul goes out in this last 
gaze. 

This look would say, "Farewell, I will be 
brave, never doubt it, don't cry, don't suffer 
regrets." This look embraces all that life 
has meant up to now, whether of joy or 
sorrow. It is final — a farewell, a promise — 
it signifies the end — all Jone's very soul is in 
one's eyes. 

And, in effect, no sooner was my back 
turned and I stood at my horse's side than all 
other thoughts left me. I forgot that I had 
perhaps said a last farewell, in face of, the 
essential importance of assuring myself that 
nothing of my equipment should be forgotten, 
that my horse is soundly shod, of tightening 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 23 

.up the girths and seeing that my blanket was 
properly folded, and, automatically, I went on 
repeating to myself, "Let me see ... I have 
my lance, my sword, my carbine 1 . . . have I 
thought of everything?" and seemed to look 
disaster in the face on finding that I had no 
water-bottle — what was I to do? The very 
bottle that Flora, the canteen-keeper, had 
filled with boiling soup in her motherly way 
— "Oh, my water-bottle" — a real calamity 
it seemed — empires might crumble; I should 
have no soup to-morrow morning — all my 
outlook on war is shrouded in gloom. 

Still it was no time to behave like a child. 
One by one each trooper led his horse into the 
huge barrack square, where spots of light from 
electric torches carried by the officers indicated 
where each troop was to take up its position. 

On the chalky ground of the square, showing 
grey in the darkness, what looked like parallel 
black lines were growing longer. They were 
lines of troops, growing into squadrons and 
increasing until they became the whole 
regiment. Behind them were the baggage 
waggons, the travelling forges, machine-guns, 
commandeered carts, the cyclists' detachment 
and all the rest. 

1 French cavalry were equipped with, the carbine, and not with 
the infantry rifle as in the case of English. 



24 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

The riding school lay between us and the 
outer square, which was filled with light and 
alive with the impatient crowd crushing for- 
ward to see us ride out of the narrow way 
kept open for us, and the time dragged as we 
waited for every man to be in his place and 
for the signal to move out. 

The horses, impatient at standing still, 
would paw the ground, and now and again 
a long-drawn neigh would break the silence. 
At last a figure appeared in silhouette — it was 
the Colonel. 

"Mount!" The two majors repeated the 
command, and in each half -regiment its two 
captains, first, then the subalterns and non- 
commissioned officers repeated it. 

A wave seemed to flow from troop to troop 
like an eddy in a pool, and, sitting rigid in our 
saddles, our lances held upright, we waited 
the final order, which was to decide our future 
and direct us towards the unknown. 

"March!" Quitting the dim light of the 
inner, we came suddenly into the brightly lit 
outer square, where thousands of hands were 
held up to bid us a frenzied farewell. 

A cry from the crowd followed as we dra- 
goons, sitting like statues, our helmets drawn 
well down over our faces lest we should betray 
any sign of emotion, passed out of the bar- 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 25 

racks which many were never to see again, 
amid the cheers of a multitude, and the 
noise of thousands of feet which grew less and 
less distinct as we rode on. 

"I say, old pals, don't forget your sweet- 
hearts," cried a little street girl standing on 
the edge of the foot-path, and that was the 
last word I heard as Rheims became more 
and more indistinct in the darkness, whilst 
we pushed on towards the east. 



CHAPTER II 

ACROSS THE BORDER INTO BELGIUM — LIFE ON 
ACTIVE SERVICE FROM DAY TO DAY — 
AFTER THE GERMANS HAD PASSED THROUGH 
— THE RETREAT 

6th August to 5th September, 19 14 

TT was on the 6th of August that we crossed 
* the frontier into the Walloon district of 
Belgium at Muno, to bring succour to the 
Belgians whose territory had just been vio- 
lated by the German Army. 

In turning over my diary, I select this 
incident from among many others and stop 
to describe it, for it seems but right to recall 
the enthusiastic and touching welcome with 
which the whole people greeted us — a people 
now, alas, crushed under the German heel. 
We were welcomed with open arms — they 
gave without counting the cost, they threw 
open their doors to us and could not do enough 
for the French who had come to join forces 

with them and bring them succour, 

26 



IMPRESSIONS OF A FRENCH TROOPER 27 

There is not a trooper in my regiment, not a 
soldier in our whole army, who does not recall 
that day with feelings of profound emotion. 

From the time we left Sedan, our ears still 
ringing with the cheers that had sent us on our 
way from Rheims, we received the heartiest 
of welcomes and good wishes at every village 
we passed through, but once across the frontier 
we were acclaimed — prematurely, as it turned 
out — as veritable conquerors., 

Cavalry on the march, squadron after 
squadron, has a marked effect on people, and 
takes the semblance of an invincible rampart 
against which any enemy must go down. 

After seventeen hours in the saddle, with 
helmet, lance, carbine, sword and full kit, 
now by a night-time more than disagreeable 
by reason of an icy cold fog, now under a 
tropical sun which scorched us, all the while 
in a cloud of dust, tormented by swarms of 
midges and horse-flies which hung about us, 
and tortured by the sight of cherry trees heavy 
with fruit, which hung over the road, but the 
branches of which were out of our reach, 
we approached the frontier. 

On the road we passed all the vehicles in 
the district which had been requisitioned by 
the military, interminable convoys of them, 
amongst which, irrespective of class, were 



28 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

humble peasant carts, old-fashioned shaky 
barouches, motor-cars, with the crests of 
their owners blazoned on the doors, all filled 
with oats and forage. 

Aeroplanes followed us and passed ahead of 
us flying all-out towards the east. Every 
now and again we had to draw to the side of 
the road to allow streams of motor omnibuses 
drawn from the streets of Paris, filled with 
chasseurs 1 and infantry, to pass by; and our 
teeth crunched the fine dust that we inces- 
santly breathed. 

At length we passed by a fir wood, and a 
post, painted yellow and black, showed us 
that we were in Belgium; then we came in 
sight of a village, almost a hamlet, from which, 
as we drew near, there rose a noise, the sound 
of singing, growing louder as we drew near — 
the Marseillaise, sung in welcome by all the 
folk from the country-side, gathered at their 
country's gateway to greet us. 

All joined in, women, children with shrill 
voices, even the old men. They ran along 
after us till we reached the place, when the 
song ceased and a thousand voices cried: 
"Vive la France! Vive les Francais!" with 
such vigour that the horses were startled and 
cocked their ears in alarm. 

1 Light infantry. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 29 

One and all brought us gifts, each according 
to his or her means, fruit, bread, jam, cakes, 
cigars and cigarettes, pipes and tobacco. I 
should fill a page with a list of what was 
thrust upon us. To our parched lips women 
held flagons of wine or beer, which refreshed 
us more perhaps when it ran down our cheeks, 
caked with dust, even than when it found 
its way down our throats, as the jolting of 
our horses caused us to spill the precious 
liquid. It taxed us to stuff away all the 
dainties in our already overfull pockets, and 
we stuck cigars into our tunics between the 
buttons, and flowers in the buttonholes. 

A number of French nuns with white 
head-dresses, like huge white birds, presented 
us with sacred medallions. I shall always 
retain graven on my memory the agony 
depicted in the beautiful, sad eyes of an 
elderly nun with white hair, who held out 
to me the last of her collection, a scapular of 
the Virgin in a brown wrap, and as she did 
so, said to me, "God guard you, my child." 

And in each village we passed through, that 
day and the days which followed, we met 
with the same welcome and the same generos- 
ity. It was the same at Basteigne, at Bertrix, 
at Rochefort, Beauraing, and Ave; indeed 
everywhere, in the towns as in the villages, 



30 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

the crowd hailed us and fed us. Belgians 
have handed me boxes of as many as fifty- 
cigarettes. 

After exhausting days of twelve or fourteen 
hours in the saddle I noticed that the troopers, 
worn out with fatigue, suffering from the heat, 
from hunger and thirst and intolerable stiff- 
ness, sat up in their saddles instinctively as 
we approached a village, prompted by an 
unconscious sense of pride in holding up 
their heads, and I can say, for my part, that 
such a welcome as we received always banished 
any feelings of fatigue. 

One of our bitterest regrets was having to 
pass again through Belgium in the reverse 
direction and to read the dumb surprise on 
the faces of the people who had thought us 
unconquerable, but whose great hearts were 
full only of commiseration for us, worn out 
as we were, and who, forgetful of their own 
anxieties, did all in their power to help us. 

A peasant woman, I remember, gave us the 
whole of her provisions, everything that re- 
mained in her humble dwelling. The enemy 
were then advancing on our heels in a threaten- 
ing wave, and, on my expressing astonishment 
that she should strip her shelves bare in this 
fashion, she shook her fist towards the horizon 
in a fury of rage and exclaimed: "Ah, sir, 



OP A FRENCH TROOPER 31 

I prefer that you should eat my provisions 
rather than leave them a crumb of bread." 

Up till the 19th August we had advanced in 
Belgium ; the retreat of the division commenced 
that same day from Gembloux. We kept on 
seeking, without success, to get in touch with 
the German cavalry. Nothing but petty 
combats took place with insignificant details, 
a troop at most, but more often with patrols, 
reconnaissance parties and little groups who 
surrendered on our approach in a contemptible 
fashion. 

I saw a German major, Prince R , ac- 
companied by two or three troopers, surrender 
themselves while still some two hundred 
metres from one of our weak patrols. They 
threw down their arms and put up their hands. 
It was a sickening sight. 

Everywhere the enemy's cavalry gave 
ground, vanished in smoke, became a myth 
for our regiment, in spite of our forced marches. 
Each day we spent ten, fifteen, twenty hours 
in the saddle. One day we actually covered 
a hundred and thirty kilometres in twenty- 
two hours, and reached our culminating point 
to the east, almost under the walls of Liege. 

Although we hardly saw any Germans 
during this first month, we could, per contra f 
follow them by the traces of their crimes. 



32 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

By day, from village to village, lamenta- 
tions spread from one horizon to the other, 
and I regret not having noted the names of 
the places which were the scenes of the 
atrocities of which I saw the sequels. I regret 
not having taken the names of the unhappy 
women whose children, brothers and husbands 
had been tortured and shot without motive, 
not to speak of the outrages which they 
themselves had undergone, not to speak of the 
assaults of lechery and Sadism of which they 
had been the victims. They alluded to these 
in a fury of rage or made an involuntary 
confession in an agony of humiliation and 
grief. 

By night a furrow of fire traced the enemy : s 
path. The Germans burnt everything that 
was susceptible of being burnt — ricks, barns, 
farms, entire villages, which blazed like torches, 
lighting the country-side with a weird light. 

We entered villages of which nothing re- 
mained except smoking and calcined stones, 
before which families, who had lost their all, 
grieved and wrung their powerless hands at 
the sight of some black debris which had once 
been all their joy, their hearth and home. 

I wish particularly to insist that these 
deeds were not the result of accident, for we 
were daily witnesses of them for a whole 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 33 

month. I still shiver when I think of the 
confidences which I have received. The pen 
may not write down all the facts, all the 
abominations, all the hateful things, all the 
lowest and most degrading filthiness inspired 
by the imagination of crazy erotomaniacs. 
It was always Sadism which seemed to guide 
their acts and predominate amongst their 
misdeeds. 

Here a mother mourned a child, shot for some 
childish prank; there a young girl grieved for 
her fiance, hung because he was of military 
age; farther on a helpless old man had had his 
house pillaged and had been brutally treated 
because he had nothing else to offer. At 
every step we heard the story of crime, and 
those guilty deserve to be hung. Such are 
the things of which such an enemy was 
capable — an enemy who refused combat, who 
advanced hastily under cover of night to 
rob and burn a defenceless village, and who 
seemed to vanish like smoke at the approach 
of our troops, leaving in our hands hardly 
more than some drunken stragglers unable to 
regain their army, or some robbers who had 
waited behind to rob a house or to violate a 
woman, and had been taken in the act. 

We passed through all that in our endless 
quest, always in the saddle, sleeping two or 



34 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

three hours at night, in an exasperating 
search for the German cavalry, which was 
constantly reported to be within gun-shot, 
but which disappeared by enchantment each 
time we approached. To give an idea of 
what we endured, I have transcribed word for 
word the notes from my field pocket-book 
describing some of these August days. These 
notes were written in most cases on horse- 
back by the roadside during a halt. 

fth August. — Torrential rain; twelve hours 
in the saddle; we are worn out with fatigue; 
put up at Basteigne; arrived at night. My 
troop is on guard. I mount duty at the bridge ; 
we are fed by the populace, nothing to eat 
from rations. 

8th August. — Reveille 3 o'clock, mounted a 
last turn of duty at the bridge till 5 o'clock. 
Departure; rested at midday in an open field 
for dinner. While we are eating, enemy is 
reported near; we follow immediately towards 
Liege. Don't come up with them. March 
at night till one in the morning ; have done one 
hundred and thirty kilometres and twenty 
hours on horseback, sleep in an open field 
from two to four. 

gth August. — Torrid heat, men and horses 
done up; billeted at Ave after twelve hours 



OP A FRENCH TROOPER 35 

in the saddle. First squadron ambushed. 
Lieutenant Chauvenet killed. The Germans 
flee, burning the villages, killing women and 
children. 

nth August. — Leave Ave at 5 o'clock. 
The heat appears to increase, not a breath of 
air. For two hours we trot in clouds of 
blinding dust. A regiment of Uhlans is 
reported. The Colonel masses us behind 
a hill and we think we are going to deliver 
battle; but the enemy steals away once more. 
Thirst is a torture, my water-bottle lasts no 
time. Arrive at Beauraing at six o'clock. 
Thirteen hours in the saddle. 

12th August. — We onsaddled at 5 o'clock. 
False alarm; wait at Beauraing. 

14th August. — Alarm, the regiment moves 
off; I am left behind to accompany a convoy 
of reservists. The village is barricaded, the 
enemy is quite near. Only a handful of 
men are with the convoy. Wait at the side 
of the road with Fueminville and Lubeke. 
Five dismounted men arrive, without hel- 
mets, done up, limping, prostrated, grim as 
those who have seen a sight which will for 
ever prevent them from smiling; the fact is 
that the remains of the 3rd squadron of the 
1 6th have been caught in an ambush by the 
German infantry concealed in a wood. They 



36 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

have been shot down at point-blank range 
without being able to put up a fight. Never 
have I seen human waifs more lamentable 
and more tragic. They had seen all their 
comrades fall at their side and owed their 
lives only to the fact that they had themselves 
fallen under their dead horses and to a flight of 
40 kilometres through the woods. Mont- 
calm is amongst the killed. The convoy 
marched out at half -past nine at night, at the 
walk, an exasperating pace of 4 kilometres 
an hour. We took all night to do 23 kilo- 
metres. I ask myself when we are likely to 
rejoin the 22nd, even whether the 22nd still 
exists. 

15th August. — We bivouac near the village 
of Authee, with the convoys of the 61st and 
5th Chasseurs. It is dark and cold, and 
this night has tired me more than my longest 
marches. The waiting about unnerves us, 
and my blood boils when I think that the 
22nd must be on the eve of having a fight. 
The Germans lay siege to Dinant eight 
kilometres off. One hears the guns as if 
they were alongside. Our turn is near, I 
think. No one is affected thereby, and we 
prepare our soup to the whistling of shells. 
The cannonade seems to redouble, they are 
giving and taking hard knocks, and some 



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Map illustrating the Route followed by the 22nd 
Regiment of Dragoons. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 37 

there will be who won't answer their names 
to-night. 

Ten o'clock. — The different convoys move 
off. 1 6th, 22nd, 9th, 28th, 32nd Dragoons, etc. 
All at once we are stupefied by seeing a bat- 
talion of the 33rd of the line, or rather what 
remains of the battalion, some thirty terrify- 
ing beings, livid, stumbling along, with horrible 
wounds. One has his lips carried away, an 
officer has a crushed hand, another has his 
arm fractured by a shell splinter. Their 
uniforms are torn, white with dust and drip 
with blood. Amongst the last comers the 
wounds are more villainous; in the waggons 
one sees bare legs that hang limp, bloodless 
faces. They come from Dinant, where the 
French have fought like lions. Our artillery 
arrived too late, but they had the fine courage 
to charge the German guns with the bayonet. 
The guns spit shell without cease and the 
crackle of musketry does not stop. We go 
across country to billet at Florennes. These 
last days of tropical heat give place to damp 
cold. It is raining. We meet long convoys 
of inhabitants who, panic-stricken, quit their 
houses to go and camp anywhere at all. It 
is 1 amentable . Two kilometres from Florennes 
we "incline." The cold is biting, in spite of 
the cloak I wear. We arrive in black dark- 



38 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

ness at a village where we bivouac in spite 
of the torrential rain. I rejoin the regiment 
with infinite trouble; clothes, kit, horses are 
dripping wet. They must stay so all night. 
I do a stable guard at three in the morning 
without a lantern. The horses are tied up by 
groups to a horseshoe. They kick and rear, 
upsetting the kit and the lances in the mud; 
I dabble about and lose myself in the night. 
The village is called Biesmeree. 

Sunday, 16th August. — The weather has 
cleared up. I leave again with the regiment. 
We are going to put up at Maisons-Saint- 
Gerard. Just before arriving there a storm 
bursts and wets us through; the water runs 
down into our breeches. I am as wet as if 
I had been dipped in a river; and one must 
sleep like that . . . and yet one does not die! 

lyth August. — Off at 5 o'clock. We bivouac 
at Saint-Martin in the meadow between two 
small streams. I have hurt my left foot 
badly, and at times I feel an overpowering 
fatigue, but one must carry on all the same. 
The bivouac is admirable. Big fires warm 
up the soup for the troops. The little stream 
shimmers, all red, and encircles the bivouac. 
The day ends; splendid. Some Cuirassiers 
bivouac a little higher up on the village green. 
We hear them singing the Marseillaise. We 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 39 

sleep in a barn in heaps one on the top of the 
other. 

igih August. — The 4th squadron is on re- 
connaissance. We start alone, at a venture. 
We are in the saddle all day. At night we 
make a triumphal entry into Gembloux and 
we are baited with drinks and food. The 
Germans are at the gates of the town and the 
crowd is wildly excited. The sun goes down 
without a cloud, round as a wafer. I forget 
the day's fatigues and we venture across the 
plain and the woods. It is an agonising 
moment ; we hide ourselves behind a long rick 
of flax ; the enemy is some hundreds of metres 
off and all night we have sentries out. I slept 
two hours yesterday, to-day I am passing the 
whole night on foot. The cold is cruel. 
Now and then my legs give way and I nearly 
fall on my knees. We have had nothing to 
eat but bread, the chill damp gets into our 
bones. Some Taubes pass, sowing agony. 

20th August. — I am one of the point party 
under Lieutenant Chatelin. We fire on some 
horsemen at 600 metres. The squadron is 
still on reconnaissance. One could sit down 
and cry from fatigue. We advance towards 
Charleroi, whose approaches are several kilo- 
metres long. A population of miners. Every- 
where are foundries, mines, factories, and for 



40 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

two hours unceasing acclamation. We arrive 
at a suburb of Charleroi, done up, falling out 
of our saddles. Interminable wait on the 
place; night falls. The camp kit comes up at 
last, but the march is not yet over, we are 
camping five kilometres farther on. It is 
enough to kill one. We get to Landelies. 
Rest at last, we bivouac. I share a bed, with 
Delettrez, for the first time for three weeks. 
In a bed at one side a fat old woman is sleep- 
ing. No matter, it is an unforgettable night. 

21st August. — Landelies; rest; we satisfy 
our hunger; we expect to pass a quiet day and 
night. At four o'clock we are off to an alarm ; 
we are in the saddle all night and arrive in 
a little village, whose name I forget, half 
dead with hunger and cold. The peasants 
give us bread. We have been all day on 
horseback. 

22nd August. — Are we going to have a little 
rest? No, we were out of bed all night and 
we are at it again. We do not understand 
the movements we are carrying out. Are 
we retreating? The fatigue is becoming in- 
supportable. We get to Bousignies at three 
in the morning. On the road I lost my 
horse during a halt and I found myself alone 
in the night and on foot. I had all the trouble 
in the world to catch up the squadron on foot. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 41 

We slept two hours in the rain in a field of 
beetroot. Off again at 9 o'clock. Loud 
firing twenty kilometres off. All the peasants 
are clearing out. They say that Charleroi 
is on fire. 

And so it goes on each day till the end of the 
month. The 26th we marched in the direction 
.of Cambrai; we put up at Epehy, which the 
enemy burnt the following day. The peasants 
replied by themselves setting fire to the crops 
to prevent their falling into the enemies' 
hands. 

At Roisel, a whole train of goods blazed in 
the midday heat. We went on to P6ronne. 
The 28th we were at Villers-Carbonel, where I 
was present at an unforgettable artillery com- 
bat. I saw shells throw some French skirmish- 
ers in the air by groups of three and four at a 
time. We left Villers-Carbonel in flames, and, 
from that moment, we beat a rapid retreat 
towards Paris, passing by Sourdon, Maison- 
celle, Beauvais, Villers-sur-There, Breancon, 
Meulan, Les Alluets-le-Roi, and, after a last 
and painful stage, we put up at Loges-en- 
Josas, four kilometres from Versailles, where 
the fortune of war brought me to one of our 
own estates. 

Thus it came about that my mother, who 



42 IMPRESSIONS OF A FRENCH TROOPER 

believed me to be at the other end of Belgium, 
caught sight of me one fine morning coming 
up the central drive to the chateau on foot, 
leading my horse, my lance on my shoulder, 
followed by a long file of troopers. 



CHAPTER III 

HOW WE CROSSED THE GERMAN LINES — THE 
CHARGE OF GILOCOURT — THE ESCAPE IN 
THE FOREST OF COMPIEGNE 

6th to ioth September, 19 14 

OAVING left Versailles we arrived at 
* *■ Saint-Mard on the 6th of September to 
find ourselves in the thick of the battle of the 
Marne. The struggle extended all around 
us, from one horizon to the other, and if it 
was incomprehensible to our officers it was still 
more so to us private soldiers. In the even- 
ing, from Loges-en-Josas, where we had been 
billeted, we heard the guns. Everyone was 
sure that Paris would be invested within the 
next two days, and then we were suddenly 
sent off to be stranded some forty kilometres 
to the north-east of Paris. We were ignorant 
of the movements going on, and we were 
amazed and quite out of our reckoning, 
hardly daring to believe that the enemy, who 
the evening before was thought to be at the 
gates of Paris, was now in retreat, 

43 



44 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

For my own part I preserve only a confused 
and burning recollection of the days of the 
6th and 7th of September, days memorable 
amongst all others, since they saw the begin- 
ning of the victorious offensive of the armies 
of Maunoury, of Foch, of French and of 
Langle de Cary. The heat was suffocating. 
The exhausted men, covered with a layer of 
black dust adherent from sweat, looked like 
devils. The tired horses, no longer off- 
saddled, had large open sores on their backs. 
The air was burning; thirst was intolerable, 
and there was no possibility of procuring a 
drop of water. All around us the guns 
thundered. The horizon was, as it were, 
encircled with a moving line of bursting 
shells, and we knew nothing, absolutely 
nothing. 

In the torrid midday heat we kept advanc- 
ing, without knowing where or why. We 
passed a disturbed night rolled in our cloaks 
in an open field, without rations and already 
suffering from hunger. The next day was a 
repetition of the last and was passed in the 
same hateful state of physical exhaustion 
and of moral inquietude. From time to 
time, behind some hill, beyond some wood, 
quite near, a sudden and violent musketry 
fire broke out; the gun fire redoubled in 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 45 

intensity and we heard the whistle of the 
shrapnel passing high over us, and the noise 
of the bursting shell. There, we said to 
ourselves, is the fighting; there, no, there, and 
then there on the left, on the right; it was 
everywhere. Repeatedly our column had to 
make sudden detours to avoid artillery fire. 
Still we knew nothing, and we continued our 
march as in a dream, under the scorching 
sun, gnawed by hunger, parched with thirst 
and so exhausted by fatigue that I could 
see my comrades stiffen themselves in the 
saddle to prevent themselves from falling. 
The sun went down with a splendour that 
no one thought of admiring. Little by little, 
insensibly, our figures bent forward till they 
touched the wallets on our saddles, and we 
gave way to a sort of torpor. Then a long 
tremor ran along the ranks. Above the 
village of Troene we fell into the thick of the 
fight. This happened so quickly that I pre- 
serve only a visual image of it. We had 
slowly climbed a hill, whose shadow concealed 
the setting sun from us. As we came out on 
the crest of the hill, we caught a sudden glimpse 
of a regiment of chasseurs-a-cheval, silhouetted 
in black against the immense red screen of the 
sky, charging like a whirlwind, with drawn 
sabres. 



46 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

A "75" gun on our flank fired without 
interruption. I can see now a wounded 
chasseur who rose from the grass where he 
lay almost under the muzzle of the gun, and 
who fell back, as if struck by lightning, from 
the displacement of air caused by the shell. 
A second later nothing was to be seen except 
a confused melee behind a small wood. The 
noise was terrible, and was made up of a 
thousand different sounds. An officer of 
chasseurs, with a bullet through his chest, 
bareheaded, all splashed with blood, came 
down the hill leaning on his sword, and 
leaving behind him a long trail which reddened 
the grass. Then the sun seemed to perish 
as the immense uproar died down; all the 
noises died away, and we continued our road 
in the rapidly falling darkness, having had 
a sudden and fugitive vision of one scene 
amongst the thousands which compose the 
drama of a great battle. 

All night we had marched without repose, 
without food. In our exhaustion we had 
become the spectres of our former selves, and 
our hearts were breaking from discouragement. 
We did not know that right alongside of us 
the most victorious offensive in the history 
of the world was commencing. We did not 
suspect that, under pressure from General 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 47 

Maunoury, the German 4th Reserve Corps 
was giving way, and that this must assure 
the rout and the final defeat of Von Kluck's 
army. 

From the 8th we began to play an active 
part in the great battle. The 5th Cavalry 
Division was ordered to surprise a German 
convoy and to seize it. The officers told us of 
this mission. At last we were going to do 
something; our time of waiting was at an 
end, and there was to be no more wandering 
about the burnt-up country, devoured by 
thirst and discouraged at feeling ourselves 
lost and forgotten in the great struggle we 
had set our hand to. The convoy would be 
four kilometres long, and we could already 
imagine the attack, the taking of the booty. 
It was going to be a romantic and amusing 
episode, and the dragoons sat up in their 
saddles, forgetting their fatigue and their 
hunger, and full of joy at the thought of the 
promised combat. 

In my inner self I could not share the general 
enthusiasm; I felt that we had been exactly 
marked down by the enemy's aircraft which 
flew over us each moment, insolently bidding 
defiance to our rifle and machine-gun fire. 

The expedition, however, started off well. 
A young dragoon, sent forward as scout, 



48 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

penetrated into a farm and there found fifteen 
Prussian Staff Officers engaged in stuffing 
themselves with food. He calmly pointed his 
revolver at them and advised them to sur- 
render. "My regiment will be here directly; 
any resistance is useless." In reality he 
had to keep them under the muzzle of his 
revolver for a long quarter of an hour, for the 
regiment was still far off. A major having 
shown signs of moving, the dragoon blew out 
his brains at point-blank range, and he suc- 
ceeded in keeping them all terrorised until 
our arrival. This capture stimulated still 
further the general good humour. I can still 
see six of the fourteen prisoners file past the 
flank of the column, each between two dra- 
goons, a forage cord tied to the reins of their 
horses, and I can see again the cunning and 
furious look of a "hauptmann" still bloated 
with the feast which we had prevented him 
from completing. I remember the gay, frank 
laugh of the whole regiment, its light-hearted- 
ness at having laid hands on these fat eaters 
of choucroute, who were too astonished even 
to be insolent. 

A few moments afterwards three German 
motor-cars were sighted three hundred metres 
off, going at a prudent pace. At once the 
ranks were broken and we galloped furiously 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 49 

at them, each straining hard to be the first 
to get there; but, by quickly reversing their 
engines, the three chauffeurs succeeded in 
turning and made off at top speed, riddled by 
machine-gun fire, but out of range for us. 
The last of them, however, was destined to 
fall into our hands next morning, having been 
damaged by a shot in its petrol tank. We 
had to set it on fire so as not to abandon it to 
the enemy, who were pressing us on all sides. 
Half my regiment was now detached from the 
division and charged with the task of captur- 
ing, unaided, the tail of a convoy which 
was reputed to have broken down on the road. 

At nightfall we entered the forest of Villers- 
Cotterets, under the command of Major 
Jouillie, and I was assailed by an acute pre- 
sentiment of misfortune. I parted from the 
other half of the regiment and from the other 
regiments of the division with the clear and 
irresistible intuition that I would not see them 
again for a long time, and shortly afterwards 
we melted like shadows under the trees of 
the great dark forest. 

Then commenced, for me, one of the most 
painful episodes of the whole war. The 
silence of the forest was lugubrious. A Taube 
persisted in flying over us, quite near to the 
ground, like a great blackbird. Its shadow 



50 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

grazed us, one might have said, and nothing 
was more harassing and more demoralising 
than this enemy that followed us and kept 
persistently on our track. At a cross-roads, 
as we came out into a large clearing, it let fall 
three long coloured smoke balls to signal our 
presence to its artillery, which was doubtless 
quite near but of whose position we were ig- 
norant. Then it disappeared with a rapid 
flight, and the night fell black as ink around 
us. 

The voices of the officers seemed grave. 
The continual thrusts which the column made, 
its returns on its tracks, gave me to understand 
that we were groping our way, not knowing 
which to take. We descended in double file 
a terribly steep narrow path, preceded by the 
machine-guns, which had only just room 
enough to pass. The soft soil sunk in like a 
marsh. Then there was a sudden halt and, 
quite near me, I saw the Major's face, full of 
anxiety. Addressing Captain de Tarragon 
in a choking voice he said, "The machine-guns 
are done for." The rest of the phrase was 
lost, but I heard the words "bogged, engulfed, 
impossible to get them out. ..." 

We were ordered to incline, and we climbed 
up again to the forest. All the men were 
alarmed at the loss of the machine-guns, aban- 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 51 

doned in the marsh, and the face of Desoil, 
the non-commissioned officer with the machin- 
guns, was heart-breaking. His mouth worked 
but no words came. 

With this discouragement all of us felt a 
renewal of hunger which was painfully acute. 
Thirst too burnt our throats, and fatigue 
weighed down our exhausted limbs. Ah, 
how I envied the horses which nibbled the 
leaves and the grass. For two days our 
water-bottles had been empty, we had already 
finished our reserve rations and this con- 
tributed to the gloom on our faces. 

Towards midnight, the village of Bonneuil- 
en-Valois was vaguely outlined in the night 
at the edge of the forest. The hungry and 
tired horses stumbled at each step; almost 
all the men were dozing on their wallets, and 
we committed the irreparable fault of dis- 
mounting and of sleeping heavily on the 
open ground, instead of utilising the cover of 
night to join one of the neighbouring divisions 
by a forced march. A small post composed 
of a corporal and four men was the only guard 
for our bivouac. Each of us had passed his 
horse's reins under his arm, and all of us slept, 
officers and men alike, like tired brutes. 
We did not suspect that our sentinels were 
posted hardly three hundred metres from the 



52 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

German sentries, who were concealed from us 
by a fold in the ground which held a regiment 
of Prussian infantry, who had chanced to 
get there, within rifle range, just at the same 
time as we. 

At dawn a neighing horse, some clash of 
arms, probably gave away our position, and 
the alarm was given in the enemy's camp, 
which was separated from us only by a field 
of standing lucerne. The troopers slept on, 
and the German scouts crept up, absolutely 
invisible. 

A sudden musketry fire woke us up, and 
the German infantry was on us. I cannot 
think of these moments without giving credit 
to the admirable presence of mind which 
saved the situation by the avoidance of all 
panic. The horses were not girthed up, 
many of the kits had slipped round, reins 
were unbuckled ; no matter, we had to mount. 
I have a crazy recollection of my loose girth, 
of my saddle slipping round, of the blanket 
which had worked forward on to my horse's 
neck; no matter, "Forward! Forward!" a 
second's delay might be our ruin. A hail of 
bullets fell amongst us. Alongside of me, 
Alaire, a quite young non-commissioned 
officer, was hit in the belly. He was the first 
in the regiment whom I had seen fall. God! 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 53 

what a horrible toss he took, dragged by his 
horse, maddened by fear, crying out, "Rol- 
land, Rolland, don't abandon me." Then, in 
a last contortion, his foot came out of the 
stirrup and he died convulsed by a final 
spasm. Near me, the Captain's orderly gave 
a loud shout; horses, mortally wounded, 
galloped wildly for some metres and then 
suddenly fell as if pole-axed. 

I saw a man who, as if seized with madness, 
sent his wounded horse headlong to the 
bottom of a ravine and then threw himself 
after. 

"Forward! Forward!" I followed the 
others, who made off towards the village. My 
horse trod on a German whose throat, gashed 
by a lance thrust, poured out such a stream of 
blood that the earth under me was red and 
streaming with it . " Forward ! Forward ! ' ' 

We were not going to view them then, these 
enemies who killed us without our seeing 
them, so hidden were they amongst the grass 
that they blended with the soil? Yes we 
were though, and suddenly surprise stopped 
short the rush of the squadrons. Before 
us, some metres off, and so near that we could 
almost touch it with our lances, an aeroplane 
got up, like a partridge surprised in a stubble. 
A cry of rage burst from every throat. We 



54 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

tried to charge it with our lances in the air, 
but it mocked our efforts, and our rearing 
horses were on the spot ten seconds too late. 
The enemy seemed also to have flown. All 
that remained were two or three grey corpses 
that strewed the soil. We trotted into the 
village with our heads down, humiliated at 
having been fooled like children. 

After having passed the first few isolated 
farms along our road, an enemy's section 
came for us, exposing themselves entirely this 
time, while a line of recumbent skirmishers 
fired a volley into us from our right, almost at 
point-blank range. There was nothing for 
it but to retire, unless we wanted to remain 
there as dead men, and at the gallop, the 
more so because a machine-gun was riddling 
the walls of a farm with little black points. 
We passed before it like a whirlwind; and, 
happily, its murderous fire was too high to 
hit us. I can still recall the sight of an 
isolated German, caught between the fire of 
his regiment and the charge of our horses. 
I turned my head and laughed with joy at 
seeing a comrade pierce him with his lance in 
passing. 

The Germans were all round us, and our 
only line of retreat was by the forest, into 
which we all plunged in a common rush 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 55 

without waiting for orders. The forest, at 
least, represented safety for the moment. 
It was a sanctuary calculated to protect us 
from an entire army, until we' died of hunger. 
For a long time we marched in silence, cutting 
across the wood, avoiding the beaten path, for 
our intention was to attain the very heart of 
the forest, or some impenetrable spot where 
we could not be discovered, where we could 
regain our breath and where our officers could 
deliberate and take a decision. The whole 
half -regiment took shelter at last in an im- 
mense ravine, where we were sheltered from 
aircraft. We were covered by a thick vault 
of leaves in a sort of prehistoric gorge, which 
seemed far from all civilisation and lost in an 
ocean of verdure, and there we dismounted. 
The Major sent patrols to explore the issues 
from the forest, and we waited some mortal 
hours without daring to raise our voices. 

Our situation was almost desperate. For 
three days we had touched not a morsel of 
bread, not a biscuit, our horses not a handful 
of corn. The reserve rations were exhausted ; 
and the patrols, which came in one after the 
other, brought sad news. The Germans were 
masters of all the issues from the forest, and 
we were taken in a vice, prisoners in this 
gulf of trees and reduced to dying of hunger 



56 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

and thirst. A little way off, the officers — 
Major Jouillie, Captain de Salverte, Captain 
de Tarragon, Monsieurs Chatelin, Cambace- 
res, Roy and de Thezy — deliberated with 
glum faces. Each stood near his horse so as 
to be able to jump on in case of surprise. In 
spite of everything the men's spirits remained 
admirable. All had a jest on their lips, 
and the more serious amongst them wrote 
a line to their wives or mothers. Leaning 
against the trunk of a tree, I scribbled on two 
letter-cards, found in my wallets, two short 
notes of adieu. The day passed with depress- 
ing slowness. 

Towards four o'clock two officers of Uhlans 
appeared on a little road which, so to speak, 
hung above us. At once all eyes were fixed 
on these two thin silhouettes. They ad- 
vanced, talking quietly, with their reins loose 
on their horses' necks. How great was the 
temptation to shoulder one's carbine, take 
steady aim, feel one's man at the end of the 
muzzle and kill him dead with a ball through 
the heart! Everyone understood, however, 
that it was necessary to keep quiet and let off 
the prey so good a mark was it, for doing so 
would have given the alarm and signalised 
our presence. Now they were right on us, 
so near that we could have touched them, 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 57 

and yet they did not know that there were 
two hundred carbines which could have 
knocked them over at point-blank range. 
Even now I can distinctly see the face of the 
first, as if it were photographed on my brain. 
He was quite young, with an eye-glass well 
screwed into the eye, his face was red and 
insolent, just as the Prussian officer is always 
represented. He had a whip under his arm, 
and he even had a cigar. Suddenly his face 
and that of his companion contracted, as if 
confronted by some apparition. This French 
regiment must have seemed to them a phantom 
of the forest, some impossible and illusory 
vision seen in the shadow of the leaves. Their 
horses stopped short and, for the space of a 
second, their riders looked like two figures in 
stone. Then in a';' flash they understood 
and fled at full speed. For an instant we 
heard the stones fly under their horses' shoes, 
but the sound grew fainter and fainter, and a 
deep silence reigned again. 

The alarm had been given, the danger had 
still further increased, and, now that our place 
of concealment had been discovered, we had 
to start off again across the thicket and rock 
on our poor done-up horses. On reflecting 
over it, my mind refuses to believe that such 
a cross-country ride was possible. To throw 



58 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

the enemy off the scent it was necessary to 
pass where no one would have imagined that 
a horse could go, and that involved a ride into 
the abyss in the deepening night, plunges 
into black gulfs, intersected by trunks of 
trees, to the foot of which some horsemen and 
their horses rolled like broken toys. 

I felt my old horse, Teint, curl up and 
tremble between my legs. His hair stood on 
end and his nostrils opened and shut. On, 
on, ever on ... to the very heart of the old 
forest, whose most secret solitudes we troubled, 
frightening the herds of deer, which fled ter- 
rified before our cavalcade. For a moment 
it seemed as if we were at some monstrous 
hunt on horseback with men for quarry, and 
in spite of myself, a mortal fatigue seized 
on me. I shut my eyes and waited for the 
"Gone away." Better it were to be finished 
quickly, since the game was lost. 

The troops had got mixed and I found my- 
self again for a moment amongst the 3rd 
squadron by the side of Lieutenant Cam- 
baceres, and we exchanged a few brief words. 
Almost timidly, so absurd did the idea appear 
that one of us could escape, I asked him to 
write a line home if it were my luck to be 
done for and if he came out safe. I promised 
him the same service, if the roles were re- 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 59 

versed. To such an extent does gaiety enter 
into the composition of our French nature, 
we even joked for a few moments and we 
shared a last tablet of chocolate, which he had 
preserved in his wallets, a service for which 
I shall always be grateful to him, for hunger 
was causing me insupportable pain. We 
were now going at a slow pace over a carpet 
of dead leaves, amongst trees which were 
singularly thinned out. Our object being to 
gain the heart of the forest, we had ended 
up by reaching its border, and we remained 
glued to the spot, holding our breath at the 
sudden vision seen through the branches. 

The famous convoys that the division was 
out to take were there, in front of us, on a 
stretch of some eight kilometres of road. 
Waggons of munitions, provision carts, water- 
carts, lorries of all sorts, were moving gaily 
along at an easy walk, and the rumbling 
noise was continuous. 

In the calm of the evening each spoken 
word, each order given by the guides came to 
us clear and distinct. Then came the last 
vehicles, the last country carts, some stragglers 
tailing out into a confusion of cyclists and 
horsemen; and so the interminable convoy 
went on its way. The vehicles at its head 
had the appearance of toys on the horizon, 



60 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

of toys designed with the pen on the gold 
of the sky; and the personnel looked like 
insects finely traced in the clear atmosphere. 
The whole thing went quietly on its way 
like a slow caravan. One would have said 
that here was a people coming to settle in 
conquered country and arriving at the end 
of its journey in the peace of a lovely evening. 
The same day, at the same moment, General 
Foch, pushing the thin end of his wedge be- 
tween the armies of Biilow and those of Hau- 
sen, enlarged that fissure which was to prove 
fatal to the German army which had almost 
arrived at the Marne. The pursuit was 
about to begin. These same convoys, whose 
peaceful aspect wounded our hearts from the 
insolence of their air of possession on French 
soil (we were ignorant of course that the 
dawn of a great victory was about to break) 
— these same convoys, lashed by terror and 
by the breath of panic, were going to follow 
beaten armies in a headlong and wild retreat, 
leaving on the road their waggons and stores. 

From this moment a vague hope sprang up 
in our hearts and, as is often the case, we 
gathered courage when the worst of catastro- 
phes seemed to be heaping on our heads. 

Night fell little by little. It was impossible 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 61 

to remain where we were. We were well 
within the German lines, of this there was 
no doubt, since we had the enemy's troops 
behind us, while their convoys were on in 
front of us; but, under cover of night we 
might attempt a desperate stroke, and any- 
thing was better than dying of hunger. 
Towards ten at night our column came bravely 
out of the forest — a silent column whose 
members looked like phantoms. Cutting 
across country, we avoided Haramont, Eme- 
ville, Bonneuil-en-Valois, Morienval. As 
night fell a sombre gloom seized on us. All 
those silent villages, which we dared not 
approach, had a threatening appearance; 
lights appeared suddenly, more or less distant; 
a succession of luminous points was moving 
slowly, like a moving train going slowly. I 
was ill at ease, and this was causing me 
physical pain; my saddle girth was too loose 
and had allowed my horse's blanket to slip 
till it threatened to fall off. No matter, for 
nothing in the world would I dismount. It 
seemed as if hands came out of the shadows 
and stretched forth to seize me. A breath of 
superstitious terror blew over us, and, in the 
deep surrounding silence, a single persistent 
and regular noise made us start with the fear of 
the unknown. It was the screech of the owl, 



62 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

an unnatural cry which seemed like a signal 
replied to in the distance; and it made us 
shudder. My eyes eagerly searched the 
shadow to discover a hidden enemy. Twice 
I could have sworn that I saw a group of 
German uniforms, two mounted Uhlans, an- 
other on foot; but I mistrusted my eyes, 
hallucinations being of common occurrence 
at night, and I tried to pluck up courage. 

While crossing a road a sudden noise and a 
cry of "Help!" rang out, a cry choked with 
agony and terror. It came from one of our 
men, whose horse had struck into mine and had 
rolled into the ditch. I turned and saw in a 
flash a brief struggle which the night at once 
blotted out. This time I had made no mis- 
take. There really were two Germans 
struggling with our comrade ; but I was carried 
on by the forward movement, and profound 
silence reigned again. If we were surrounded 
by enemies, why this conspiracy of silence? 
The horrid screech of the owl never ceased, 
imparting panic to our disordered imagina- 
tions, making us think that even a catas- 
trophe was preferable to this maddening 
incertitude, to this agony of doubt. During 
this time I lived the worst hours of my life. 

We advanced, however, marching from west 
to east, and soon we entered the great black 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 63 

mass of the forest of Compiegne, from whence 
arose four or five bird-calls as we approached. 
No matter; for the second time the forest 
represented safety for us, and under the im- 
penetrable shade of its tall trees we followed 
its edge in the direction of Champlieu, some- 
times followed, sometimes preceded by the 
hooting which announced, as we learnt later, 
our approach and our passage. 

At the moment when our agony was at an 
end, when hope revived, when, even, certain 
men giving way to fatigue had bent down on 
to their wallets drunk with sleep, — at that 
moment we fell definitely into the mouse- 
trap into which the Germans had methodically 
decoyed us, and a desperate attack was made 
on us from all sides. The drama took place 
so rapidly that I can remember only detached 
shreds of it. The clouds parted, letting fall a 
flood of moonlight ; somewhere a cry resounded 
in the night, and the black forest seemed to 
spit fire. Thousands of brief flashes lit up 
each thicket, a hail of bullets thinned the 
column, and mingled with this were cries and 
a terrible neighing from the horses, some of 
which reared, while others lay kicking on the 
ground, dragging their riders and their kits 
in a spasm of terrible agony. Instinctively 
each trooper made a "left turn" and galloped 



64 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

furiously to get out of range of this murderous 
fire which decimated our ranks. In a few 
seconds we had put two hundred metres 
between the forest and us, and the two 
squadrons rallied under cover of a slight 
mist. 

As we rode a squadron sergeant-major, 
Dangel, gave a groan, as his horse carried 
him off after the others. Then I saw him 
collapse, pitch forward on his nose on to his 
horse's fore shoulder and fall to the ground, 
to be dragged. I leapt from my horse and 
managed to disengage his foot. Holding 
him in my arms, I begged him to show a little 
pluck. "We must clear out of this or we 
will be taken prisoners. For God's sake get 
on your horse." His only response was a 
long sigh, then his heavy body collapsed in 
my arms, and he dragged me to the ground. 
For a second I was perplexed. The others 
were far off, and I alone remained behind 
with a dying man in my arms, who clasped 
me in desperate embrace. At last his arms 
let go, and a spasm stretched him dead at 
my feet. I laid him piously on the grass 
with his face to the sky, and when I had 
finished this last duty to a comrade, I raised 
my head and saw a whole line of skirmishers 
fifty metres off. For a moment a feeling 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 65 

possessed me that I could not get away; but, 
damme, they were not going to take me alive. 
An extraordinary calm came over me. 

I remounted slowly, made sure that I had 
picked up all four reins and lowered my 
lance. Now, by the grace of God . . . now 
for it. A volley greeted my departure, but 
it was written that I was to escape. Several 
bullets grazed me, not one hit me. Soon 
I was out of range and concealed by a curtain 
of fog. I rejoined the two squadrons, many 
of whose troopers were without horses. Two 
hundred metres farther on a fresh fusillade 
came from the invisible trenches and deci- 
mated our already thinned ranks. Captain 
de Tarragon, whose horse had been wounded, 
pitched forward and remained pinned under 
his horse. I passed by him at the gallop 
hardly seeing him, and I heard a shout that 
seemed to illumine the very darkness : ' ' Charge, 
my lads." This shout, repeated by all, swelled, 
increased and became a savage clamour, 
which must have paralysed the enemy, for 
the fusillade ceased and cries of "Wer da" 
were heard at different points. 

Afterwards I shut my eyes and tried to 
remember, but for some moments everything 
was mixed up. I recall a furious gallop at the 
dark holes where the Germans had gone to 



66 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

earth. A high trench embankment faced us 
and my horse got to the other side after a 
monstrous scramble. Before me and on my 
right and left I saw horses taking complete 
somersaults; I could not say whether it lasted 
a minute or an hour. The pains and the 
privations of the last three days culmi- 
nated in a moment of madness. We had to 
get through, cost what it might; we had to 
bowl over everything, break through every- 
thing, but get through all the same, and our 
hot and furious gallop grew faster under the 
heedless moon, which bathed the country 
with its pale and gentle light. Three times we 
charged, three times we charged down on the 
obstacle without knowing its nature, until the 
remains of the two squadrons found them- 
selves, breathless, in a little depression at the 
edge of a wood, before an impassable wall of 
barbed wire. 

Impatient voices shouted for wire-cutters, 
and during the delay before these were forth- 
coming, a few panic-mongers blurted out false 
news, which soon circulated and which all 
believed: "The enemy is advancing in skir- 
mishing order." "We are going to be shot 
down at point-blank range," etc. . . . Had 
the news been true, I would not have given 
much for our skins. Huddled together like a 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 67 

flock of sheep before the gap which some of 
our men were exerting themselves to open 
up for our passage, a handful of resolute 
infantry could have killed every one of us. 

At last the gap was made and I descended 
a steep slope between the thin stems of the 
birches, having been sent forward as scout by 
my Major, whom I was never to see again. 
Below, a figure in silhouette and bareheaded 
was resting on his sword in the middle of a 
clearing bathed in moonlight. He watched 
me coming, and I was astonished to recognise 
in him the officer of my troop. For a brief 
moment each had taken the other for an 
enemy, and at twenty metres off we were 
each ready to fall on the other. Our mutual 
recognition was none the less cordial. M. 
Chatelin refused my horse, which I offered 
to him, deciding to try to regain our lines on 
foot under cover of night (which he did after 
having knocked over two German sentries). 
He warned me expressly against some skir- 
mishers concealed in a thicket behind me, and 
after a hearty handshake and a "good luck," 
which sounded supremely ironical between 
two such isolated individuals, lost in the heart 
of German "territory, " I watched his thin 
silhouette melt into the darkness. 

I made my way back to give an account of 



68 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

my mission and to tell the Major that this 
route was impracticable for the two squad- 
rons. Above, the plain extended to infinity, 
white in the moonlight, with no vestige of a 
human being! All that was to be seen were 
two horses which galloped wildly to an accom- 
paniment of clashing stirrups, and the un- 
easy neighs of lost animals — that whinny of 
the horse which has something so human in 
it gave me a shudder. How was it that two 
squadrons had had the time, during my brief 
absence, to melt and disappear? 

What road have they found? Why have 
they abandoned me? The terror of desola- 
tion took the place of my former calm. To 
die with the others in the midst of a charge 
would have been fine; but to feel oneself 
lost and alone in all this mystery, in this end- 
less night, in the midst of thousands of in- 
visible enemies, was a bit too much. It was 
a childish nightmare and, seized with the same 
panic as the lost horses, I too spurred mine till 
his flanks bled, and I set off straight before me 
galloping like a madman. Luck, or perhaps 
my horse who scented his stable companions, 
brought me all at once to a small contingent 
of dragoons, — Captain de Salverte and eleven 
men, with whom I joined up. I questioned 
the Captain, who could tell me nothing. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 69 

He had found himself detached and lost like 
me, and he had put himself at our head to try- 
to get us out of this inextricable position. 
We walked on gloomily through a country- 
cut up by hedges and streams. Shortly, we 
found ourselves within a few metres of an 
enemy's bivouac, the fires of which made the 
shadows dance on our drawn faces. A stupid 
sentry was warming himself, and had his 
back turned to us. What was the good of 
struggling? Why cheat oneself with chimeri- 
cal illusions? The day would dawn and we 
would be ingloriously surprised and sent to 
some prisoner's camp in the centre of Ger- 
many, unless, choosing to die rather than 
yield, we kept for ourselves the last shot in 
our magazines. 

However, we reached the forest. In the 
maze of dark paths we lost the Captain and 
Sergeant Pathe. With Farrier Sergeant-Ma- 
jor Delfour, and Sergeant-Major Desoil of the 
machine-gun section, nine of us were left, 
and we were determined to try a last effort, 
spurred by an awakening of that instinct of 
self-preservation which stiffens the desire 
to live in the very face of death. 

Deep in the forest we passed the night con- 
cealed in a thicket, taking pity on our horses, 
which would have died had we demanded 



70 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

a further effort of them. Soon we were over- 
powered by sleep, sleep so profound that the 
entire German army might have surprised us, 
without our raising a little finger to get away. 
At daybreak we continued our way, with 
stiff and benumbed limbs and soaking clothing. 
It was a beautiful autumn day. Wisps of 
pink mist wrapped to the tree tops. A large 
stag watched our coming with uneasy sur- 
prise, standing in the middle of a paved road 
on his slim legs. He disappeared with a 
bound into a clump of bushes, whose swaying 
branches let fall a shower of silver drops. A 
divine peace possessed all space. In a clearing 
some thirty loose horses had got together. 
The larger number were saddled and carried 
the complete equipment of regiments of 
dragoons and of chasseurs. The lances lay 
on the ground, together with complete sets 
of kit and mess tins. Surely the enemy had 
not passed this way or he would have laid 
hands on all this material so hurriedly aban- 
doned; and yet no human being was about 
who could tell us anything, not even a lost 
soldier. There was no one but ourselves and 
the immense tranquil forest, gilded by early 
autumn, splashed with the dark green of the 
oaks and with every shade of colour from 
ardent purple to the white leaf of the aspen. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 71 

That glorious dawn shone on the greatest 
victory the world had ever seen. The battle 
was over for the armies of Maunoury, of 
French, of Franchet, of d'Estrey, of Foch, and 
of Langle de Cary. The pursuit was begin- 
ning, and the whole extent of country, where 
we were now wandering, pursued and tracked 
like wild beasts, was going to be cleared 
within a few hours of the last German who 
had sullied its soil. 

More than thrice during the morning we 
came unexpectedly on German detachments, 
isolated parties, lost patrols or stragglers, and 
each time we cut across the wood to escape 
them at the risk of breaking our necks. Then 
we got to a long straight path at the lower end 
of which a fine limousine motor-car had been 
abandoned, and at the end of the path we 
reached a village which appeared to be empty. 
We consulted together for a moment, being in 
doubt what to do; but all of us were loth to 
return to the forest. This was the fifth day 
of our fast; so much the worse for us; it was 
time to put an end to it, so we made our way 
to an abandoned farm. We sheltered there for 
two hours, scanning the surrounding country 
for signs of life. Everything seemed dead. 
We could see no peasant, no civilian, not even 
an animal, and this waiting was one torment 



72 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

the more, but it was to be the last. Not till 
ten o'clock, over there, very far off, did I 
catch sight of the thin black caterpillar of 
a column of soldiers coming our way during 
my turn of sentry-go. My heart beat vio- 
lently, but I refrained from giving the news 
to my comrades from the fear of raising false 
hopes. My eyes burnt like flame and my 
teeth chattered. If these were Germans the 
game was up. If they were French, oh! 
then! 

I looked, I looked with my eyes pressing 
out of my head. At times, as I strained my 
eyes, everything grew misty and I could see 
nothing; then, a second later, I again found 
this growing caterpillar and I began to dis- 
tinguish details. There were squadrons of 
cavalry, but I could not yet make out the 
colour; and my body, from being icy cold, 
turned to burning hot. At times I forced 
myself not to look. I looked again, counted 
twenty, and then devoured space with my 
eyes. 

A patrol had been detached, and approached 
rapidly at the trot; this time I recognised 
French Hussars. Then all strength of will, 
and all my effort to remain calm disappeared. 
I turned my reeling head towards my com- 
rades and I fell on the grass crying, crying 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 73 

like a madman, in words without sequence. 
The fatigue of these five days without food 
or drink, almost without sleep, and the living 
in a perpetual nightmare, brought on a 
nervous crisis, and my whole body was racked 
with spasms. My comrades, not having as 
yet understood, looked at me with astonish- 
ment. With a gesture I pointed out the 
approaching column, the pale blue of which 
contrasted brightly with the gold of the leaves. 
All of them, as soon as they had seen it, were 
overcome as I had been, each in his own way. 
Some burst into brusque convulsive sobs, 
others danced, waving their arms like madmen 
or rather like poor wretches who have passed 
days of suffering and agony on a raft in mid- 
ocean, and who suddenly see a ship approaching 
to their rescue. 



CHAPTER IV 

VERBERIE THE CENTRE OF THE RALLY — THE 

EPIC OF A YOUNG GIRL — MASS IN THE 

OPEN AIR — FROM DAY TO DAY 

ioth September to 20th October, 19 14 

THE battle finished on the tenth, and then 
the pursuit of the conquered army 
commenced and kept the whole world in 
suspense, with eyes fixed on this headlong 
flight towards the north, which lasted till the 
end of the month, and which was to be the 
prelude of the great battles of the Yser. 

The region round Verberie was definitely 
cleared of Germans and was become once 
more French. The little town for some days 
presented an extraordinary spectacle. 

We entered the town after having received 
the formal assurance of the 5th Chasseurs, 
who went farther on, that all the country was 
in our hands. Some divisional cyclists were 
seated at the roadside. We asked them for 
news of the 22nd, and their reply wrung our 

74 



IMPRESSIONS OF A FRENCH TROOPER 75 

hearts. They knew nothing definite, but they 
had met a country cart full of our wounded 
comrades, who had told them that the regi- 
ment had been cut up. 

No one could tell us where the divisional 
area was to be found. The division itself 
appeared to have been dismembered, lost 
and in part destroyed. We thought that we 
were the only survivors of a disaster, and, 
once the horses were in shelter in an empty 
abandoned farm stuffing themselves with 
hay, we wandered sadly through the streets 
destroyed by bombardment and by fire in 
search of such civilians as might have re- 
mained behind during the invasion. 

A little outside the town we at last found a 
farm where two of the inhabitants had stayed 
on. The contrast between them was touch- 
ing. One was a paralysed old man unable to 
leave his fields, the other was a young girl 
of fifteen, a frail little peasant, and rather 
ugly. Her strange green eyes contrasted 
with an admirable head of auburn hair, and 
she had heroically insisted on looking after 
her infirm grandfather, though all the rest 
of the family had emigrated towards the 
west. She had remained faithful to her 
duty in spite of the bombardment, the battle 
at their very door and the ill-treatment of 



76 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

the Bavarian soldiers who were billeted in the 
farm. Distressed, yet joyous, she prepared 
a hasty meal and busied herself in quest of 
food, for it was anything but easy to satiate 
eleven men dying of hunger when the Ger- 
mans, who lay hands on everything, had only 
just left. 

She wrung the neck of an emaciated fowl 
which had escaped massacre, and, by adding 
thereto some potatoes from the garden, she 
served us a breakfast, washed down with 
white wine, which made us stammer with 
joy, like children. One needs to have fasted 
for five days to have felt the cutting pains of 
hunger and of thirst in all their horror, to 
appreciate the happiness that one can experi- 
ence in eating the wing of a scraggy fowl and 
in drinking a glass of execrable wine tasting 
like vinegar. She bustled about, and her 
pitying and motherly gestures touched our 
hearts. While we ate she told us the most 
astonishing story that ever was, a story acted, 
illustrated by gestures, which made the 
scenes live with remarkable vividness. 

She told us how, faithful to her oath, she 
was alone when the Bavarians came knocking 
at her door, how she lived three days with 
them, a butt for their innumerable coarse- 
nesses, sometimes brutally treated when the 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 77 

soldiers were sober, sometimes pursued by 
their gross assiduities when they were drunk; 
how one night she had to fly half naked 
through the rain, slipping out through the 
vent-hole of the cellar, to escape being vio- 
lated by a group of madmen, not daring to 
go to bed again, sleeping fully dressed behind 
a small copse; how at last French chasseurs 
had put the Bavarians to flight and had 
in their turn installed themselves in the farm, 
and how among them she felt herself protected 
and respected. 

She attached herself to her new companions, 
whom she looked after like a mother for three 
days. Then they went away, promising to 
return, and she was left alone. 

But the next day at dawn, uneasy at the 
row that came from the town, she decided 
to go in search of news. She put on a shawl 
and slipped through the brushwood and 
thickets as far as the first houses. She was 
afraid of being seen, and made herself as 
small as possible, keeping close to the walls, 
crossing gardens and ruined houses. The 
terrible noise increased, and she went towards 
it. She wanted to see what was going on, 
and a fine virile courage sustained her. The 
shells fell near her; no matter, she had only a 
few more steps to go to turn the corner of a 



78 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

street. She arrived on the place as the battle 
was finishing. 

Her fifteen chasseurs were there, fifteen 
corpses at the foot of the barricade. One of 
them, who still lived, raised himself on seeing 
her, and held out his arms towards her. 
Then, forgetting all danger, in a magnificent 
outburst of feminine pity, she braved the 
rain of fire and dashed to the centre of the 
place. She knelt by the young fellow, en- 
veloped him in her shawl to warm him and 
rocked him in her arms till he closed his young 
eyes for ever, thankful for this feminine 
presence which had made his last sufferings 
less bitter. 

While she remained kneeling on the pave- 
ment wet with blood, a last big calibre shell 
knocked over, almost at her feet, a big corner 
house, which in its fall buried the German 
and French corpses in one horrible heap. 
She fell in a faint on the stones, knocked 
over by the windage of the shell, which had 
so nearly done for her. 

During the latter part of her discourse she 
straightened her thin figure to the full, her 
strange eyes sparkled, and she appeared to be 
possessed by some strong and mysterious 
spirit which made us tremble. She became 
big in her rustic simplicity — big, as the 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 79 

incarnation of grief and of pity, and the 
peasant in her gave place to a living image 
of the war — an image singularly moving and 
singularly beautiful. 

From the next day Verberie became in 
some degree the rallying point for all soldiers 
who had lost touch with their units. Ele- 
ments of all sorts of regiments, of all arms, of 
all races even, arrived on foot, on horseback, 
on bicycles, in country carts. There were 
dragoons, cuirassiers, chasseurs, artillerymen, 
Algerian Light Infantry and English. Ber- 
nous, khaki uniform, blue capes, rubbed 
shoulders with dolmans, black tunics and red 
trousers. 

In this extraordinary crowd there were men 
from Morocco mounted on Arab horses and 
wearing turbans; there were "Joyeux" who 
wore the tarboosh, and ruddy English faces 
surmounted by flat caps. All the uniforms 
were covered with dirt and slashed and torn. 
Many of the men had bare feet, and some 
carried arms and some were without. It 
was the hazard of the colossal battle of the 
Marne, where several millions of men had been 
at grips, which had thrown them on this 
point. All were animated by the same 
desire for information, and particularly of the 



80 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

whereabouts of their respective regiments. 
From every direction flowed in convoys, 
waggons, artillery ammunition waggons, strag- 
glers from every division and from every 
army corps. The mix-up and the confusion 
were indescribable. One heard shouting, 
swearing, neighing of horses, the horns of 
motor-cars, and the rumble of heavy waggons, 
which shook the houses. 

Faces drawn with fatigue were black with, 
dust and mud and framed in stubbly beards. 
Everyone was gesticulating, everyone was 
shouting and a bright autumn sun, following 
upon the storm, threw into prominence 
amongst the medley of clothing the luminous 
splashes of gaudy colours and imparted an 
Oriental effect to the crowd. 

Having eaten, washed and rested, I walked 
the streets, drinking the morning air and taking 
deep breaths of the joie de vivre, of the strength 
and vitality mingled with the air. I looked 
on every side to see whether I could not find 
some acquaintance in the crowd, some stray 
trooper from my regiment. 

So it was that the hazard of my walk 
brought me to a scene which moved me to 
tears and which rests graven so deeply on 
my memory that I can see its smallest detail 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 81 

with my eyes shut. The Gothic porch of the 
church, with its fine sculptures of the best 
period, was open, making in the brightness of 
the morning a pit of shade, at the foot of which 
some candles shone like stars. On the thresh- 
old of the porch, gaily lighted by the morning 
sun, a priest, whose fine virile face I can still 
recall, held in his hand the enamel pyx, and 
his surplice of lace of a dazzling whiteness 
contrasted with the muddy boots and spurs. 
One could guess that after having traversed 
some field of battle, consoling the wounded 
and the dying, he had dismounted to officiate 
in the open air under the morning sun. 

Before him, on a humble country cart and 
lying on a bed of straw, were stretched the 
rigid bodies, fixed in death, of two chasseurs 
who had fallen nobly while defending the 
bridge over the river. All around, kneeling 
in the mud of the porch, a semicircle of bare- 
headed soldiers, overcome by gratitude and 
humility, were assembled to accomplish a last 
duty and pay their last respects to the two 
comrades who were lying before them and who 
were sleeping their last sleep in their blood- 
stained uniforms, and assisted at the supreme 
office. The priest finished the De profundus, 
and in a clear voice pronounced the sacred 
words " Rever titter in terram suam unde erat 



82 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

et spiritus redit ad Deum qui dedit ilium." 
The officiant gave the holy-water sprinkler 
to the priest, who sprinkled the bodies and 
murmured u Requiescat in pace." "Amen," 
responded the kneeling crowd, and a great 
wave of religious feeling passed over the 
kneeling men, the greater part of whom gave 
way to overmastering emotion. 

I can still see a big devil of an artilleryman, 
with his head between his hands, shaken by 
convulsive sobs. Having given the absolu- 
tion, the priest raised the host sparkling 
in the sunlight for the last time and pro- 
nounced the sacramental words. I moved off, 
deeply affected by the grandeur of the scene. 

By the 12th a good number of 22nd Dra- 
goons and some officers of the regiment had 
rejoined at Verberie. We formed from this 
debris an almost complete squadron under the 
command of Captain de Salverte, who had 
succeeded in getting through the lines by 
skirting the forest. 

I again found my officer, M. Chatelin, 
whom I had last seen in the little clearing 
near Gilocourt, surrounded by lurking enemies, 
and whom I had hardly dared hope to see 
again alive; also M. de Thezy, my comrade 
Clere and others. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 83 

We were all sorry to hear that Lieutenant 
Roy had fallen on the field of battle with 
several others, and that Major Jouillie had 
been taken prisoner. As for Captain de 
Tarragon, it was stated that he might have 
escaped on foot with his orderly and that 
he might be somewhere in the neighbourhood 
with a contingent of escaped men, but any 
precise information was wanting. 

The night before I had slept in the drawing- 
room of the chateau belonging to M. de 
Maindreville, the mayor. Its appearance 
merits some brief description, so that those 
who are still in doubt as to the savagery of 
the Germans may learn to what degree of 
bestiality and ignominy they are capable 
of attaining. 

This fine drawing-room was a veritable 
dung heap. The curtains were torn, the small 
billiard-table lay upside down in the middle 
of the room, a litter of rotting food covered the 
floor, the furniture was in matchwood, the 
chairs were broken, the easy-chairs had had 
their stuffing torn out of them and the glass 
of the cabinets was smashed. One could 
see that all small objects had been carried off 
and all others methodically broken. On the 
first floor the sight was heart-breaking. Fine 
linen, trimmed with lace, was soiled with 



84 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

excrement; excrement was everywhere, in the 
bath, on the sheets, on the floor. They had 
vomited on the beds and urinated against 
the walls; broken bottles had shed seas of 
red wine on the costly carpets. An unnam- 
able liquid was running down the staircase, 
obscene designs were traced in charcoal on 
the wall-papers and filthy inscriptions orna- 
mented the walls. 

I have told enough to give an idea of the 
degrading traces left by a contemptible enemy. 
I have exaggerated nothing; if anything, I 
have understated the truth. 

And this is the people that wants to be the 
arbiter of culture and of civilisation! May 
it stand for ever shamed and reduced to its 
true level, which is below that of the brute 
beast. 

On the morning of the 12th, under the 
command of Captain de Salverte we crossed 
the Oise by a bridge of boats, the stone bridge 
having been destroyed by dynamite some 
days before. We went north to billet at 
Estree-Saint-Denis, which was to be the 
definite rallying point of the 22nd Dragoons. 
We were followed by several country carts, 
full of dismounted troopers, saddles, lances, 
cloaks and odds and ends of equipment. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 85 

Acting on very vague information, I set out 
on the 13th to look for Captain de Tarragon. 
I was mounted on a prehistoric motor bicycle, 
requisitioned from the village barber. I 
scoured the country seeking information from 
everyone I met. I received the most con- 
tradictory reports, made a thousand useless 
detours and was exasperated when overtaken 
by night without having found any trace of 
him. 

I followed the road leading to Baron and to 
Nanteuil-le-Haudoin, along which but a few 
days before the corps of Landwehr, asked 
for by von Kluck, had marched with the 
object of enveloping our army, and along 
which it had just been precipitately hustled 
back. The sky was overcast and the day 
threatening. At each step dead horses with 
swelled bellies threatened heaven with their 
stiff legs. A score of soldiers were lying in 
convulsed attitudes, their eyes wide open, 
with grimacing mouths twisted into a terrify- 
ing smile, and with hands clasping their 
rifles. Involuntarily I trembled at finding 
myself alone at nightfall in this deserted 
country, where no living being was to be seen, 
where not a sound was to be heard except 
the cawing of thousands of crows and the 
purr of my motor, which panted on the hills 



86 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

like an asthmatic old man, causing me the 
liveliest anxiety. 

Fifteen hundred metres from Baron, after 
a last gasp, my machine stopped for ever, 
and, as I was ignorant of its mechanics, I was 
compelled to leave it where it was and con- 
tinue my journey on foot through the darkness. 

The proprietor of the chateau of Baron 
put me up for the night. As at Verberie, 
everything had been burnt, soiled and de- 
stroyed. Nothing remained of the elegant 
furniture beyond a heap of shapeless objects. 
Next morning with the aid of a captain on 
the staff who requisitioned a trap for me, I 
got back to Verberie and found Captain de 
Tarragon there. He had slept at the farm 
of La Bonne Aventure, quite near to where 
I lay. 

When he saw me, after the mortal anxieties 
through which he had lived, believing his 
squadron lost and cut up, he was overcome 
by such a feeling of gratitude and joy that I 
saw tears rise to his eyes while he shook me 
vigorously by the hand. He had already 
sent forward my name for mention in the 
order for the day with reference to the affair 
at Gilocourt and the death of poor Dangel. 
I was recommended for the military medal, 
and my heart swelled with pride and joy, 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 87 

while I was carried back to Estree-Saint- 
Denis, stretched out in a country cart with 
a score of dismounted comrades. 

A few days afterwards I was promoted 
corporal and proudly sported the red flannel 
chevrons bought at a country grocer's shop. 

Once the half -regiment was reconstituted 
after a fashion, though many were missing 
(a detachment of fifty men without horses 
having returned to the depot), we were at- 
tached to the 3rd Cavalry Division, which 
happened to be in our neighbourhood, ours 
having left the area for some unknown 
destination. Until the 1st of October our 
lot was bound up with that of the 4th Cuiras- 
siers, who marched with us. 

On the 23rd of September, as supports for 
the artillery, we were present at violent 
infantry actions between Nesle and Billan- 
court. The 4th Corps attacked, and the 
furious struggle extended over the whole 
country. My troop was detached as flank 
guard and, in the thick morning fog, we 
knocked up against a handful of German 
cavalry, whom, in the distance, we had 
taken for our own men. 

We charged them at a gallop, and we 
noticed that they were tiring and that we 



88 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

were gaining on them. One of them drew 
his sabre and cut his horse's flanks with it, 
whilst a non-commissioned officer turned and 
fired his revolver without hitting us; but, 
thanks to the fog, they got away. We did 
not tempt providence by following them too 
far for fear of bringing up in their lines. 

At night we were sent to reconnoitre some 
fires which were reddening the horizon and 
which, from a distance, seemed vast con- 
flagrations. We came upon a bivouac of 
Algerian troops, who were squatting on their 
heels, warming themselves, singing strange 
African melodies and giving to this corner 
of French soil an appearance of Algeria. 

On hearing the sound of our horses they 
sprang to arms with guttural cries, but when 
they had recognised that we were French they 
insisted on embracing our officer and danced 
round us like children. 

We billeted at Parvillers in a half -destroyed 
farm, and there at daybreak a sight that 
suggested an hallucination met our eyes. 
Some ten German soldiers were there in the 
courtyard dead, mowed down by the "75," 
but in such natural attitudes that but for 
their waxen colour one could have believed 
them alive. One was standing holding on to 
a bush, his hand grasping the branches. His 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 89 

face bespoke his terror, his mute mouth 
seemed as if in the act of yelling and his 
eyes were dilated with fear. A fragment of 
shell had pierced his chest. Another was 
on his knees, propped against a wall, under 
cover of which he had sought shelter from 
the murderous fire. I approached to see where 
his wound was and it took me a moment to 
discover it, so intact was the corpse. I saw 
at last that he had had the whole of the inside 
of his cranium carried away and hollowed out, 
as if by some surgical instrument. His tongue 
and his eyes were kept in place by a filament 
of flesh, and his spiked helmet had rolled off 
by his side. An officer was seated on some 
hay, with his legs apart and his head thrown 
back, looking at the farm. 

All these eyes fixed us with a terrifying 
immobility, with a look of such acute terror 
that our men turned away, as if afraid of 
sharing it; and not one of them dared to 
touch the magnificent new equipment of the 
Germans, which would have tempted them 
in any other circumstances. There were 
aluminium water-bottles and mess tins, hel- 
met plates of shining copper and sculptured 
regimental badges dear to the hearts of 
soldiers, * and which they have the habit of 
collecting as trophies. 



90 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

The dawn of the 25 th broke without a 
cloud over the village of Folies. A heat haze 
hid the early morning sun. The enemy were 
quite near, and the sentries on the barricades 
gave the alarm. The cuirassiers and dra- 
goons, leaving their horses under cover, had 
been on watch in the surrounding country 
since the morning to protect the village and 
the batteries of "75's, " which were firing 
from a little way back. 

A non-commissioned officer and I had 
remained mounted. M. de Thezy sent us 
to investigate some horsemen whose shadows 
had loomed through the mist and whom we 
had seen dismount in an apple orchard near 
the village of Chocques. We set off at a 
quiet trot, convinced that we had to deal 
with some French hussars whom I had seen 
go that way an hour before. We crossed a 
field of beetroot and made straight towards 
them. They seemed anchored to the spot, 
and when we were within one hundred metres, 
and they showed no signs of moving, our 
confidence increased. The fog seemed to 
grow thicker and our horses, now at the walk, 
scented no danger. We were within fifty 
metres of them when a voice spoke out and 
the word "carbine" reached us distinctly, 
carried by a light breeze. The non-com- 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 91 

missioned officer turned to me, his suspicions 
completely stilled, and said, "We can go on, 
they are French, I heard the word carbine." 
At the same instant I saw the group come to 
the shoulder and a dozen jets of fire tore the 
mist with short red flashes. A hail of bullets 
fell all around us, and we had only just time 
enough to put between them and ourselves 
as much fog as would conceal us, for before 
turning tail we had seen the confused grey 
mass of a column coming out of the village. 
We had only to warn the artillery and then 
there would be some fun. 

The lieutenant of artillery was two kilo- 
metres back perched on a ladder. Having 
listened to what we had to say, he turned 
towards his gun and cried through a mega- 
phone, "2600, corrector 18." We were al- 
ready far off, returning at the gallop to try 
to see the effect, and it was a fine sight. 

Leaving the horses in a farm, we slipped 
from tree to tree. There was the column, 
still advancing. A first shell, ten metres in 
front of it, stopped it short; immediately a 
second fell on the left, wounding some men, 
and a horse reared and upset its rider. A 
third shell struck mercilessly into the centre of 
the column and caused an explosion which sent 
flying, right and left, dark shapes which we 



92 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

guessed to be fragments of bodies. It rained 
shell, which struck the road with mathematical 
precision, sowing death and panic. In the 
twinkling of an eye the road was swept clean. 
The survivors bolted in every direction like 
madmen, and the agonising groans of a dying 
horse echoed through the whole country-side. 

On the ist of October we rejoined our divi- 
sion and the first half -regiment at Tilloy-les- 
Mofflaines. Up to the 20th we passed through 
a period of great privation and fatigue owing 
to the early frosts. We were unable to sleep 
for as many as five days on end, and when at 
night we had a few hours in which to rest, we 
passed them lying on the pavement of the 
street, propped up against some heap of coal 
or of stones, holding our horses' reins, each 
huddled up against his neighbour to try and 
keep warm. 

Here are extracts from my diary, starting 
from 8th October: 

8th October. — All night we guarded the 
bridge at Estaires, after having constructed a 
formidable barricade. Damp and chilly night, 
which I got through lying on the pavement 
before the bridge; drank a half -litre of spirits 
in little sips to sustain me. This is the most 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 93 

trying night we have passed, but the spirits of 
all are wonderful. 

gth October : Twenty minutes to four, two 
kilometres from Estaires, scouting amongst beet- 
root fields. — Has the supreme moment come? 
A little while ago I firmly believed that it had ; 
now I am out of my reckoning, so incompre- 
hensible and widespread is the struggle which 
surrounds us. 

We have evacuated Estaires and the bridge 
over the Lys, which we were guarding, to 
rejoin our horses on foot. After some minutes 
on the road the first shells burst. My troop 
received orders to fight dismounted, and here 
we are, lying down as skirmishers amongst 
the beetroot, in the midst of a heavy artillery 
and musketry fire. I am on the extreme right, 
and a moment ago two shrapnel shells came 
over and burst six or eight metres above my 
head, peppering the ground with bullets. 
Never, I imagine, have I come so near to 
being hit. 

For the moment it is impossible to under- 
stand what is going on; the whole of the 
cavalry which was on in front of us — chasseurs, 
dragoons and all the cyclists — have fallen 
back, passing along the road on our flank. We, 
however, have had no order to retire. The 
peasants with their wives and children are 



94 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

running about the country like mad people. 
It is a sorry sight. A moment ago I saw an 
old man and a little girl fall in their hurry to 
escape from their farm, which a shell had just 
knocked to pieces. They are like herds of 
animals maddened by a storm. 

At dusk the Germans are 500 metres off. 
We have orders to take up our post in the 
cemetery of Estaires. I have hurt my foot 
and each step in the ploughed land is a tor- 
ture. I have noted a way which will lead me 
to the bridge on the other side of the town. 

I brought up my patrol at the double. 
When I got back I saw the troop retiring. 

We passed through the town, which had a 
sinister look by night, reddened by the flames 
from many fires. The whole population is in 
flight, leaving houses open to the streets, and 
crowding up the roads. All the window-panes 
are broken by the bombardment; somewhere, 
in the middle of the town, a building is burning 
and the flames mount to the sky. There are 
barricades in every street. We have reached 
the horses, which are two kilometres from the 
town, and we grope for them in the dark. 
Mine is slightly wounded in the foreleg. Long 
retreat during the night (the second during 
which we have not slept — a storm wets us to 
the skin). 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 95 

Arrived at Chocques at five in the morning. 
We get to bed at 6.30 and we are off again at 
8 o'clock. I ask myself for how many days 
men and horses can hold out. 

10th October. — In the afternoon we again 
covered the twenty kilometres which separated 
us from Estaires. Hardly had we settled 
down to guard the same bridge as yesterday 
when we were sent to La Gorgue. On the way 
stopped in the village, as shells commenced 
to fall. The 1st troop took refuge in a grocer's, 
where we were parked like sheep. A large 
calibre shell burst just opposite with a terrible 
row. I thought that the house was going to 
fall in. Lieutenant Niel, who had stayed 
outside, was knocked over into the ditch and 
wounded. We are falling back with the 
horses to La Gorgue, and we are passing a third 
night, without sleep, on the road, Magrin and 
I on a heap of coal. Horses and men have 
had nothing to eat, the latter are benumbed, 
exhausted, but gay as ever. 

nth October. — We get to a neighbouring 
farm at Estrem to feed the horses. They have 
scarcely touched their hay and oats before an 
order comes telling us to rejoin at the very 
place from which we have come. The Ger- 
mans are trying to take the village from the 
east, thanks to the bridge which they captured 



96 IMPRESSIONS OP A FRENCH TROOPER 

the day before yesterday, but we have been 
reinforced by cyclists, and the 4th Division is 
coming up. We are holding on; the position 
is good. The belfry of the town hall has just 
fallen. We are going back to Estrem. 

Three hours passed in a trench without 
great-coats. Magrin and I are so cold that we 
huddle up one against the other and share a 
woollen handkerchief to cover our faces. We 
put up at Calonne-sur-la-Lys. And so it 
goes on up to the 17th, the date on which we 
re-enter Belgium, passing by Bailleul, Out er- 
st eene and Locre. It is not again a triumphal 
entry on a fine August morning, it is a march 
past ruins and over rubbish heaps. 

At Outersteene, however, we were received 
with touching manifestations of confidence 
and enthusiasm; an old tottering and broken- 
down teacher had drawn up before the school 
a score of young lads of seven to ten years old, 
who watched us passing and sang the Marseil- 
laise with all their lungs, while the old man 
beat the time. 

The village had been evacuated only three 
days ago, and it was from the thresholds of 
its houses, partly fallen in and still smoking, 
that this song rose, a sincere and spontaneous 
outburst. 



CHAPTER V 

THE TWO GLORIOUS DAYS OF STADEN 

ON October 19th, at midday, we rode into 
Hougled. The Captain got us together 
and warned us that we were being sent on in 
front to delay the march of the enemy till our 
infantry had had time to come up. The 
enemy's march had to be delayed at all costs. 
He did not conceal from us that two, or 
perhaps three, divisions had been marked 
down in front of us, that the task would be a 
stiff one and that it was a question of " stick- 
ing it out " to the last drop of our blood 

We then received orders to prepare for a 
dismounted action, and, leaving our horses in 
a street, we set off across the ploughed fields, 
laden with ammunition. I carried a big 
cartridge case, which I usually left in my 
wallets on account of its weight. 

Some round clouds, of a snowy whiteness, 

which made them stand out against the crude 

and washy blue of the background, scudded 

across the sky, carried by a stiff breeze. All 
7 97 



98 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

Nature was en fete, and the fresh strong wind 
was intoxicating. 

Towards four o'clock the enemy showed 
himself in sections and in companies, well 
aligned on the plain beneath us. There was 
no attempt at concealment, as, doubtless, the 
village was thought to be unoccupied. 

Under cover of some thin brushwood we 
opened fire on these regular formations, to 
show that we were there and not in the least 
impressed by these demonstrations of com- 
pany and field training. It was just like being 
on manoeuvres, and these awkward soldiers 
seemed rather ridiculous, gravely doing the 
goose-step, when so soon it would be a ques- 
tion of killing or being killed. 

We must have got their range, for we noted 
through field-glasses a slight confusion in the 
enemy's ranks, and, instantaneously, the 
advancing infantry disappeared. They were 
still there, however, for their bullets, slipping 
over the ridge where we offered a good target, 
pitted the turf all round us, happily without 
wounding any one. The Germans have a 
remarkable faculty of making themselves 
scarce in the twinkling of an eye as soon as they 
have been seen by an enemy, like those insects 
which, at the least noise, blend with the grass 
on which they are perched. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 99 

Our naval guns, ranged by the side of the 
road, fired over the plain. An observing 
officer, standing on his horse's back, judged the 
effects of the fire. We saw the shells burst in 
beautiful plumes of dark or light smoke. The 
enemy's fusillade ceased, much to our satis- 
faction. 

But the German artillery began to reply, and 
we were soon subjected to such a fire that we 
had to retreat towards the village, being 
uneasy about our horses, which happened to be 
in the line of fire. In going along the main 
street we kept close to the walls to avoid the 
shell splinters. Shells of all calibres fell with- 
out ceasing, making holes in the thin slate 
roofs and breaking the windows. I saw one 
pierce a wall some paces in front of me and 
burst inside a house, whose stories collapsed, 
one on the top of the other. It was just like 
an earthquake, the whole street was shaken 
by it. 

We made for our horses at the double and 
found them plunging under this storm of fire, 
and we galloped off behind the village to get 
them into safety. Without losing a second 
we distributed extra cartridges in large num- 
bers and returned to take our place between 
the farms in the grass fields shut in by hedges 
and barriers. We worked at fortifying our 



ioo IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

positions till evening. Everyone made "his 
trench." (That word had then another sig- 
nification; at that time the word trench re- 
presented for us the least scooped-out hole, 
the least obstacle placed between the enemy 
and us.) 

We protected ourselves with sand-bags, 
faggots, agricultural implements, etc. We 
were hardly installed before we received an 
order to leave this place and to occupy a road 
on the right, running between two meadows. 
We made a barricade at the end of it, somehow 
or other, with whatever came to hand. 

The infantry, expected at four o'clock, were 
late, and it became questionable whether it 
would be materially possible to hold out much 
longer, if the Germans attacked, taking into 
consideration the disproportion between our 
forces and those of the enemy. 

Night had hardly come when an infernal 
fusillade broke out, and it lasted till daylight 
without the least slackening. It was exactly 
like an uninterrupted salvo fire, with the ad- 
dition of the sharp, regular dry crackle of 
machine-guns. Thousands of projectiles struck 
our fragile barricade or passed, whistling, 
over our heads. We fired straight in front 
of us into the dark night, without know- 
ing what we aimed at, except that our fire 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 101 

was directed towards the place whence this 
murderous storm of shot and shell came. 

Constantly the same question ran from man 
to man: "Have the infantry come up?" for 
we knew that our lives depended on their 
arrival. Our orders were: "You will prevent 
the Germans passing till you have been 
relieved." 

We had only a handful of troopers, two 
hundred perhaps, to check the onslaught of 
a formidable mass of infantry. Unless our 
infantry came to our aid we would be cut up 
to a man ; but the enemy should have to pass 
over our bodies. 

Overcome with fatigue, and in spite of the 
thunder all round us, I fell asleep, suddenly, 
heavily, dreamlessly, in a little ditch which ran 
by the roadside. I don't know when I awoke. 
The noise of the combat was dominated by a 
clamour still louder and more penetrating: a 
part of the village of Staden was on fire. A 
horde of Germans dashed into it, yelling 
"Hourraa!" A diabolical clamour rose to 
heaven, and yells and cries of bestial joy 
mounted with the thick smoke of the fires. 

We learnt afterwards that they had charged 
empty barricades, a party of our men having 
evacuated the town an hour previously. A 
corporal of the ist squadron, posted a little 



102 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

more to the left, told me he had seen them 
200 yards off defiling in quick step "silhouetted 
like devils" against the glare of the fire. 

Still no infantry. 

A torpor seized me and I fell back into the 
ditch, overcome by sleep, and slept again till 
almost daylight. From that moment events 
moved with great rapidity. It must have 
been seven o'clock when the infantry at last 
arrived, fifteen hours late. We heard hurried 
footsteps. I turned and saw troops falling 
back in hot haste, being irresistibly out- 
flanked by the enemy. They seemed to be 
pursued by assailants who were on their 
heels. I heard voices exclaiming, "It is 
pitiable to see fellows so up against it." I 
said nothing, but, in my inner consciousness, 
I clearly understood that the supreme moment 
was come for many of us. 

For a moment I feared that we had been 
forgotten in the general movement. Soon 
afterwards Captain de Tarragon appeared at 
the cross-roads. I can see him still; he 
looked immensely big in his blue cloak. 
Without speaking, he signalled to us that we 
could retire. It was time indeed, for the 
enemy outflanked us on all sides. The troop 
doubled towards him and ran on. Magrin 
and I remained alongside him. Never so 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER ' 103 

much as then have I felt the irresistible force 
of Destiny. It was written that I was to 
remain with him until the end. 

We three reached a farm on the crest of the 
ridge; 400 metres off a German company was 
advancing. The Captain seized a carbine 
from the hands of a late-comer who fled past 
us and turned round to open fire. Faithful to 
my oath, and knowing that our lives hung on a 
thread, I fired off the contents of my magazine 
alongside of him. I aimed as best I could, 
though my greatcoat interfered, and I shot 
into the brown. A second later the German 
reply crumbled the wall of the farm, passing 
between the Captain and me, two fingers' 
breadth over our heads. 

I implored de Tarragon not to expose him- 
self any longer. What was the use of this 
heroic folly of standing up alone against an 
advancing battalion of the enemy ? Doubtless 
our regiment was already a long way off, but 
we might, perhaps, be able to rejoin it by 
crawling along the deep ditch which ran by the 
roadside. 

Hate of the enemy seemed, however, to rage 
in his heart, and he replied, "It is too bad to 
have to abandon such a target!" At last, 
his cartridges being exhausted, he decided to 
retire, without running, and seeming to defy 



104 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

the entire world with his tall well set-up figure 
of a handsome French soldier. Instead of 
taking to the ditch which ran by the roadside, 
he crossed the field of fire. I followed him, 
without understanding, and Magrin did like- 
wise. 

A moment afterwards our number was 
increased to four by the arrival of an officer 
of hussars or of chasseurs, who came running 
up. All my life I shall remember this last. 
He was young, elegant and good-looking, and 
so trim and neat with his sky-blue cap jauntily 
set at an angle. When two metres off he 
opened his mouth as if to speak, but before 
having emitted a sound he fell dead, hit by 
a bullet under the ear. 

The Captain, who was at my side, stepped 
forward to put himself, at last, under shelter. 
Hardly had he taken a step before a bullet hit 
him, and I uttered a cry of rage on seeing him 
fall in a heap. Feigning to be wounded or 
dead, to deceive the enemy and cause the 
cessation of his fire, I fell also, and both of us 
rolled into the deep ditch. 

There was not a minute to lose. "Magrin, 
quick, quick, no good troubling about the 
Lieutenant of chasseurs, he's dead; but per- 
haps the Captain is still alive, we must get 
him away. " Magrin, who had tumbled down 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 105 

after me, believing me hit, raised the Captain's 
head and I took his feet. A hail of bullets 
passed like a squall above our heads. We 
stayed so a good five minutes, exhausting our- 
selves in useless efforts to carry off this inert 
body. On account of its weight it was im- 
possible even to move it in the squatting and 
unhandy position in which we found ourselves. 

He did not regain consciousness for an 
instant; once his eyes opened, then the eye- 
lids quivered and his head fell back heavily. 
He was dead, and we could not think of getting 
him away. The fire was furious. Magrin 
and I, who had remained behind till the last, 
now tried to gain the farm behind which our 
regiment was massed. We made three metres 
under cover of the ditch, and then we covered 
a hundred metres at the run, under such a 
rain of bullets, aimed at us, that I attribute our 
escape to a miracle. My greatcoat and cape 
were riddled. As I turned the corner of the 
house, that corner even was torn off and the 
broken bricks fell on me. I passed by some 
bicycles abandoned against a wall, and, after 
I had gone by, I heard the sharp crack of 
broken spokes, which the bullets had cut. 

Once I had passed the corner I found shelter 
for an instant. I came across Captain Besnier 
who was wounded, and helped to carry him. 



106 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

The road was strewn with the bodies of dra- 
goons, chasseurs and cyclists. Behind the 
house were a brick-field and a clay-pit, whose 
slippery crest had to be crossed. I saw some 
unlucky fellows get half over, within two paces 
of safety, and then roll to the bottom, hit by 
the pitiless machine-guns. 

The firing redoubled. Major Chapin, who 
had arrived at the front only three days before, 
fell hit through the head, and many others 
fell whom I did not know. 

The command of our party devolved on 
Lieutenant Mielle, and, following an order 
from the dying Major Chapin, we took the 
direction of the railway bridge on the right. 
Lieutenant Desonney was wounded and lay 
out a hundred metres off. I heard the Colonel 
cry in a loud voice with an accent of despair 
which is untranslatable, "Won't someone 
bring in Desonney?" and one after the other 
five dragoons unhesitatingly left their shelter 
and threw themselves into the furnace of fire, 
each of them as he fell, within a few yards, 
and to be immediately replaced by another. 
The whole regiment would have gone if the 
Colonel had not put a stop to such heroic 
obedience. 

But what was going on? Amidst the noise 
of battle the clear notes of a bugle mounted to 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 107 

heaven; both sides hesitated. They were the 
well-known notes sounding the charge. We 
turned, and a sight of unspeakable grandeur 
met our eyes. 

The dismounted 1st squadron, lance in 
hand, charged into the whirlwind of fire, to 
allow of the rest of the regiment falling back. 
The obsessing refrain made one's temples 
throb. We were hypnotised, and the Colonel, 
standing up, unconscious of the bullets which 
grazed him, folded his arms and watched his 
admirable soldiers who, moved by almost 
superhuman brotherly devotion, braved the 
fire and retarded for a moment the enemy's 
march so as to permit their comrades to escape. 
The Colonel watched, and great tears of pride 
and of anxiety ran down his tanned cheeks. 
When, once in one's life, one has had the 
privilege of seeing such a deed, it lives with 
one for ever. 

We now crawled across the railway. The 
machine-guns mowed the fields of beetroot as 
if they had been shaved off with a razor. 
Seven of us took this way and we all got 
through, I don't know how, without being 
touched. Then we slipped between the in- 
fantry sections which were advancing in 
skirmishing order on all sides. Some minutes 
later we were behind a ridge under cover and 



108 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

in safety. We reached a little shanty where 
we sheltered for a long time, and from the 
loft of which we could still fire on the 
enemy. 

Towards 9 o'clock the musketry fire gradu- 
ally diminished. We left the farm only when 
the artillery duel began. The shells came a 
bit too close, and there was the risk of the 
house falling in on us. 

We went in search of the horses two kilo- 
metres off, and retirement was decided on 
because of the need for food and rest. When 
I caught up the column at the trot I counted 
47 led horses, which means that 47 men had 
fallen. Desonney's troop had an officer and 
14 men missing out of 28. We had lost a 
major, two captains, two lieutenants and 
many comrades, but we had made it possible 
for two army corps to come up. 

A mere handful of men had put up a fight 
against three divisions. A fine page in the 
history of the regiment ! 

My greatcoat was handed round the squad- 
ron. A bullet had pierced the cloth four 
times under the heart, another twice through 
the arm, three others over the ribs. 



Eight days afterwards, at Clarques, near 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 109 

Saint-Omer, where we were resting, promo- 
tions were made to replace the non-commis- 
sioned officers who had fallen gloriously that 
day. I was made sergeant-major. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE FUNERAL OF LORD ROBERTS — NIEUPORT- 
VILLE — IN THE TRENCHES — YPRES AND 
THE NEIGHBOURING SECTORS — I TRANSFER 
TO THE LINE 

A MEMORABLE ceremony in which with 
-**■ others of the regiment I took part, was on 
the occasion of the ceremony at Saint-Omer 
in honour of Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, who 
had died on the 15th November while on a 
visit to the allied armies. 

At half -past six the regiment was formed up 
on the road and the twelve best specimens of 
manhood were picked out from each troop. 
We were soaked by rain on the way, but the 
sun came out when the ceremony began. 

We were formed up in battle array before 
the town hall. All round the square, on the 
edge of the pavement, a single rank of High- 
landers, carefully sized, stood like statues. 
We waited the coffin, which appeared at last 
from a side street, preceded by a troop of 

English cavalry who marched slowly — their 

no 



IMPRESSIONS OF A FRENCH TROOPER in 

black horses were admirable creatures. Then 
came a section of infantry, fine, big, taking 
fellows, who marched with their heads down 
and their eyes fixed on the ground ; next came 
superb Indian troops, who wore turbans, 
amongst whom were great native princes ; then 
a contingent of Canadians, just disembarked; 
lastly some Highland pipers playing a lament 
whose refrain was eternally alike. We had 
heard this shrill lament for a long time, now 
it became stronger and more penetrating the 
nearer the cortege approached, and gave a 
strange exotic note to this old-fashioned setting 
of a little French town. 

When the coffin appeared the Highlanders 
who formed the guard of honour executed a 
strange movement. They slowly described 
an arc of a circle with their rifles, their out- 
stretched right arms forming an uninterrupted 
line all round the square, then each man 
finished the movement by crossing his arms on 
the butt-plate of his rifle, the muzzle of which 
was now resting on the ground. 

With their heads bowed, these mourners 
resembled some old bas-relief. The coffin, 
enveloped in the Union Jack, was borne on a 
gun-carriage. It was all very simple and very 
moving. 

To the wild notes of the Scottish bagpipes, 



ii2 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

now silent, the clear trumpets of our dragoons 
replied, and their sound was in itself like 
sparkling metal. They continued to sound 
until the remains of the Field-Marshal had 
been placed in the town hall. 

After the ceremony, which we did not see, 
twenty-one guns thundered out, fired by 
batteries posted behind the square. An im- 
mense rainbow, as sharply defined as if drawn 
with a stroke of the brush, cut the sky with a 
perfect and uninterrupted semicircle. Sym- 
bol of peace, it came to earth directly behind 
the batteries, and the flash of the guns showed 
up against its iridescent screen. 

An English officer came to tell the Colonel 
that the ceremony was over, and we returned 
to Clarques under a beating rain, which had 
begun to fall again. 

Our next active work was at Nieuport. 
Motor buses brought us to Coxyde, where, 
amongst the slightly built villas of this 
watering-place, Belgian and French uniforms 
swarmed. Sand-dunes, on which the sand 
encroached on the scanty covering of grass, 
bordered the horizon on all sides. 

Captain Vigoureux had sent me to lay out 
the camp with a corporal and one man. Clere, 
Henon and I went on ahead at a sharp pace. 
From Coxyde to Ostdinkerque there was no 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 113 

trace of bombardment. On the road we met 
several lots of horses at exercise, some waggons, 
many soldiers and a few civilians. At Ost- 
dinkerque a mill, two houses and a part of the 
church had been gutted yesterday. Some 
vehicles contained civilians, who were 
prudently clearing out. 

From this place onwards (Nieuport-Ville 
was six kilometres off) the road became more 
and more deserted and the noise of the guns 
became louder. At first we only heard the 
noise of our own batteries and the shell burst 
a long way off. Two kilometres from Nieu- 
port I heard the whistle of the first German 
shell, a shrapnel which burst some hundreds 
of metres 'off. Several people on the road 
were peppered with the fragments of shell; the 
telegraph wires were broken and the rails of a 
tramway were torn up. The country was a 
desert, and the eye saw nothing but sand-dunes 
without end, and here our underground life 
began. 

At the entrance to the town a prudent man 
on duty showed his profile at the door of a 
cellar. I asked him, "Where is Captain Ma- 
hot?" and he answered in an irritated voice: 
"Don't stand there in the middle of the road, 
don't you see that the shells are falling just 
where you are?" I had not noticed it, but I 



H4 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

did not take long to find out. The man on 
duty led me five metres underground to Lieu- 
tenant Deporte. "Sir, where is Captain 
Mahot? The town commandant of the 16th 
Dragoons? I see no one about." "Every- 
one has gone to earth," he replied, placidly 
filling his pipe, "and I advise you to hurry up 
and do likewise, for it comes down like hail 
just about now. " It did indeed. I heard the 
most disquieting sounds, the bursting of big 
shells, the splash of bullets, which flattened 
themselves against the houses. Some streets 
were enfiladed, and thousands of shrapnel 
bullets flew back and forward between the 
German trenches and ours. 

The Lieutenant gave me a man to take me to 
the Captain's cellar, which was at the other end 
of the town. He and I (I had left the others in 
a cellar) skirted the walls, and at every step 
what a sight ! All that remained of the church 
resembled a sort of historic ruin — some pillars, 
some arches, very fine ones, and some sculp- 
tures lying on the ground. Everywhere the 
craters of the big shells had the dimensions of 
dried-up ponds. In the principal place there 
were two such, in which one could have put 
two houses. 

Speaking of houses, some had been de- 
stroyed with an art and a refinement which 



OP A FRENCH TROOPER 115 

made them look like builder's models. One 
was standing, of which the only thing wanting 
was the outside wall facing the street, and one 
could see the section of the gaping interior. 
The pictures were hanging on the walls, and 
on the piano were photographs and nick-nacks. 
The drawing-room, the dining-room and the 
bedroom were intact; but the flooring of the 
attics had given way and everything had fallen 
through to the floor below. Another house 
was almost comical in appearance, for, against 
a wall on the lowest story, stood a fine bamboo 
rack, on which two statuettes of sham Saxe 
ware smiled an eternal and idiotic smile and 
seemed to jeer at the bombardment. Other 
houses, and these were the most numerous, 
were lamentable rubbish heaps, fallen in, 
blackened, broken up in every sense, blocking 
the streets and forming a hideous lamentable 
chaos. Even when no shell fell — and there 
were long" moments of calm — the houses 
dropped to pieces of themselves. This one 
might lose the remainder of its tiles, which fell 
into the street with a din; the next one might 
drop, let us say, a stove, or a small billiard- 
table, from one floor to another. 

I arrived at last at the end of my journey, 
having asked myself a thousand times whether 
I should not be pulverised on the way there. 



u6 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

The worst bit was when I reached, the last 
cross-roads. For the second time I asked an 
orderly whether this was the house — pardon, 
the cellar — of Captain Mahot, and for the 
second time I heard an irritated voice reply, 
" Don't stay there in the middle of the street " ; 
but this time I lost the end of the phrase, being 
blinded and deafened. The heavens seemed 
to fall on me. I heard, "Get under cover," 
and I felt my tympanum shattered. A house 
twenty metres from me, a large two-storied 
house, seemed to be transformed into a vol- 
cano. A shell had entered its middle, through 
the roof, and the whole house collapsed into the 
street, accompanied by a formidable fall of 
rafters, bricks and furniture. ' ' You see that, ' ' 
said the orderly in a severe tone; "get into the 
cellar." I felt just like a little boy. 

Five marines had been buried under the 
ruins. A little later I saw their bodies on 
stretchers. What a lamentable death for a 
sailor or soldier! 

Captain Mahot said to me, "The billeting 
area of the 22nd Dragoons? Very good, there 
it is," and he showed me the butt-end of 
street "the shepstraat. " I looked at it in 
astonishment, saying to myself, "That?" 
Messina after the earthquake would have 
offered more comfort. Nevertheless I in- 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 117 

spected the cellars and apportioned them 
amongst the troops, and, by myself this time, 
I returned through the town to my point of 
departure, to meet and conduct Captain 
Vigoureux, whom I found three hundred 
metres beyond the gates. 

This made the fourth time that I had made 
this disquieting journey. I began to feel that 
I had had enough of it, the more so as I had 
walked twelve kilometres, and, not being 
accustomed to carrying a pack, my back hurt 
me. Clere was quite knocked up, and had 
looked at once so sad and so comic that I did 
not know whether to laugh at him or to pity 
him. 

The regiment settled in more or less (rather 
less) in the sector reserved for it. The cellars 
were crowded. My orderly, who was a treas- 
ure of devotion and very inventive, arranged 
my kit, found me a candle and spread a 
mattress. I was kept on the run, everyone 
called me at once: "A man wanted for the 
guard-room, a liaison officer to see the Captain, 
a man wanted for water fatigue, the quarter- 
master-sergeant wants to know how things 
are here, the 3rd troop have no billets and 
so on." ... I tried to reply to everyone, 
and my head was like a whirlpool. It was 
impossible to keep the men in, though there 



n8 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

were strict orders that they were not to leave 
the cellars. They broke out in every direc- 
tion, and, in spite of the shells, they amused 
themselves like children, entering the houses 
at the peril of their lives. One of them 
brought me a stuffed stork; another a cornet 
and a draught screen; my orderly came last 
with a woman's mantlet, trimmed with lace! 

Towards six o'clock the rain of shells ceased. 

After dinner not a sound was heard. The 
cold was cruel. I wrapped myself in my great- 
coat and turned up the collar above my ears. 
I stuck my head well into my fatigue-cap and, 
to amuse myself, I started off on "reconnais- 
sance," armed with an electric lamp. I 
visited twenty gutted houses, and this diver- 
sion was becoming monotonous when, from a 
particularly damaged court, I heard a some- 
what uncertain hand playing the piano. The 
air was one of those old waltzes which dragoons 
dote on and which suggest Viennese softness 
combined with the popular taste of the 
Boulevards. There was no light in the yawn- 
ing house. One might have called it the house 
of Usher, at least I thought of that sponta- 
neously, for there was something weird about 
those black holes from whence came this sad 
and popular jingle, though the eye was con- 
scious of nothing but darkness. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 119 

My ideas wandered for a moment, but, 
noticing a ray of light at my feet, I found the 
key of the enigma: some lascars had brought 
the piano down to the cellar to be more at their 
ease. At the foot of some ten steps, or rather 
of a steep slope — I learnt afterwards that, in 
coming down stairs, the piano had done the 
work of a "105 " — I had only to pull a canvas 
curtain aside slightly to see what was going 
on inside. It was an affecting scene. 

Some ten men lay on mattresses listening 
to the musician, who was seated on a small 
cask, playing the same waltz over and over 
again, probably the only thing he knew, with 
his great clumsy fingers. There was some- 
thing in the look of each of these men analo- 
gous to that of intoxication from opium, or to 
the fascination on his subject of a mesmerist. 
Above, the shells began to fall again; below, 
they had forgotten the war, because they 
listened to a tune they loved, and, music is 
all-powerful over simple hearts. 

I remember this episode as one of the most 
picturesque souvenirs of the war. I stayed 
in that cellar playing to them for more than 
an hour. They were drunk with pleasure and 
with dreams of home. That night I could 
have led them to the assault, even to the 
cannon's mouth. 



120 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

Next day, the 24th of January, reveille was 
sounded at three o'clock. 

At four o'clock we fell in. We were going 
into the second line trenches. 

Our "dug-out" was a little rectangular 
room five metres long by two metres wide, cut 
in the stiff soil, stayed up with planks, covered 
with beams and roofed with earth. 1 It was 
dark as an oven. It was entered by an open- 
ing so narrow that my pack could not pass, 
and to get to this door, if one could call it a 
door, one had to perform prodigies from the 
roadside onwards to avoid being bogged up to 
the knees. There was a little straw on the 
floor, and the furniture consisted of a chair. 

There we were going to take up our residence, 
my seven men and I — Dhuic, Laroche, Pon- 
nery, Bobet, Thierard, Emmanuel and that 
terrible-looking fellow Hurel, with his vul- 
ture's face and insane alcoholic eye. I can 
see him now at the bottom of the trench, his 
face emerging from a sheep-skin coat which 

1 On reading the remarkable and charming book which my 
colleague, Lieutenant Dupont, has published under the title 
En Compagne, I noticed in one chapter such a similarity of 
phrase that I thought of changing the beginning of this descrip- 
tion, so as to avoid the appearance of a plagiarism. I decided, 
however, not to alter its first form, but to leave intact this 
page, which was written in the trenches on that very day 24th 
January, 1915, long before Lieutenant Dupont 's book appeared. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 121 

made him look more than ever like a wild 
beast. "If the Bosches catch sight of you," 
an unindulgent comrade said to him, "they 
will certainly clear out in double-quick 
time. " 

We got here from Nieuport at four o'clock 
in the morning. The regiment was closed 
up and the men stumbled at each step over 
the debris of houses, which littered the road. 
Dead silence reigned, and the cold north wind 
of early morning made our eyes water. No 
shells or bullets were flying, but we heard from 
time to time the noise of tiles falling from some 
roof or the din of a falling skirt of wall. Star 
shell were being used, and each time they lit 
up the country they made us jumpy, for we 
presumed that they would be followed by a 
shell only too well placed. 

Day dawned, and I came cautiously out of 
my hole to have a look at the country. The 
human imagination never, I imagine, has 
conceived, nor ever can picture, anything 
sadder or more desolate than what I saw. I 
found myself on the road leading from Nieu- 
port to Saint-Georges at a point almost 
equally distant from both of these remains of 
towns. The banked-up road meandered over 
an immense muddy plain, necked with pools 
of grey water, now frozen. Nieuport was on 



122 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

my right. From here I could not see a single 
house which was, I won't say intact, but only 
damaged by the bombardment. It was a 
heap of gutted buildings, crumbling walls and 
twisted and broken trees. On my left was 
Saint-Georges, in if anything worse state. 
Nothing remained but a pile of stones, and 
one would never have supposed that a village 
had once existed there. 

By the side of my trench there was a freshly 
made grave, that is to say a square of mud 
surmounted by a white cross. The cap of a 
marine lay by its side. I picked it up ; it was 
full of brains. The poor fellow must have 
been killed on this very spot, and yesterday 
probably, mown down perhaps by that same 
shell which had pierced two neighbouring 
trees with its murderous fragments. 

As I re-entered my trench the sharp clatter 
of our batteries disturbed the air. They were 
placed quite near us, and well hidden, for I 
could see nothing of them. I supposed that 
this was the opening of the ball and that the 
enemy's reply would not be long in coming. 
Some of my men had come out. I made them 
get back again quickly, and treated Hurel to 
a kick from behind. The men become as 
quiet as sheep when there is danger about. 
One of them warmed me some coffee on a solid 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 123 

fuel spirit-lamp, and another let me make a 
pillow of his abdomen. 

25th January, 19 15. — We were relieved at 
5 o'clock and returned safe and sound to 
Nieuport. I found the cellar transformed, 
thanks to Clere and Henon; there was a light, 
a table covered with a cloth and some crockery. 
They had looted these things from the town, 
and I did not find fault with them for doing so, 
for these articles were safer where they were 
than in the ruins exposed at any moment to 
squalls of shell. 

The bombardment had kept on increasing 
until past midday. It was dangerous to go out- 
side. Every half -hour I made a round to make 
the men get back into their cellars. We made 
some tea, but the water came from the Yser, 
which was carrying down dead bodies, and 
the tea smelt of death. We could not drink it. 

The ration cart arrived to an accompani- 
ment of shells. We did not take long to 
unload it. 

26th January, ig 15. — At midday a French 
aeroplane new over the dunes. It was bom- 
barded at times, and it let fall some silver 
trails which sparkled in the sky like the scales 
offish. 1 

* These were darts and position-indicating rockets. 



124 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

To-night we buried a dragoon belonging to 
the 1 6th, who had been killed some days before 
in the course of a reconnaissance. The body- 
was already at the cemetery, covered with 
earth, and we brought the coffin, carried by 
two soldier grave-diggers. It preceded, by 
some paces, the silent cortege formed by the 
Captain, M. Chatelin, the priest, two non- 
commissioned officers and myself. We crossed 
the canal bridge a little before midnight. 

A sentry, petrified by cold, asked us for the 
countersign, which was given, and we went on 
our way, avoiding the white patches of moon- 
light which might have betrayed our presence. 

The rusted gate of the cemetery creaked 
lamentably as we entered onto the holy ground 
that the shells had failed to respect. They 
had hollowed monstrous and gaping graves 
that yawned under our feet, laying bare, com- 
pletely or partially, the skeletons and corpses. 
A stiff north wind was blowing, bending the 
slim shrubs and agitating the grass and the 
rotten crosses as in a dense macabre. It was 
the devil of a night, and I admit that we all 
shivered, preferring the risks of a charge in 
full daylight to this sinister and furtive work. 
Every two or three minutes a star shell traced 
a lovely curve of diamonds in the sky, and, 
instinctively, we put our heads down in 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 125 

silence. Four men dug the grave. We un- 
covered the poor body, which had been covered 
with a thin layer of earth. It had been 
wrapped up in sacking, like the big quarters 
of beef that are unloaded from the supply 
carts when rations are given out. 

It was the most lamentable thing I have 
ever seen. 

Everything was hurried through in a few 
minutes. The coffin was too big. The Cap- 
tain put into it an envelope containing the 
name of the soldier who was going to rest there 
between the lines, and who would be crooned 
to sleep by the noise of shells. 

The wind shook the surplice of the priest 
who recited the prayers, and I heard only a 
confused murmur of odd phrases, for the wind 
carried off the rest. We had to hurry, for 
the quiet moments were rare, and we returned 
through the dark deserted streets in impressive 
silence. 

Nieuport, 29th January, 1915. — To form an 
exact idea of what this very peculiar war is like 
one must have lived the twenty-four hours that 
I have just passed through — a bitterly cold 
winter's day and night. 

We set out to occupy the first line trenches 
at 4 o'clock. The night was clear and frosty, 
and the stars glittered like splinters of ice. 



126 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

A clear and cold moon lit up the immensity of 
the ravaged and desolated plain, making the 
ice glitter, silhouetting the traitorous and 
dangerous ruins, betraying our position by 
the glint from our bayonets, while the frost- 
bound ground conducted sound to a great 
distance. 

As far as the post from which the second-line 
trenches were commanded the road was good 
and the distance easy; but from there onwards 
the carrying out of reliefs became hazardous. 
We marched in single file, holding our bayo- 
nets in our left hands to prevent them from 
knocking against our rifles, raising our feet 
and going on tiptoe, as in a sick-room. The 
road became atrociously bad, it being im- 
possible to repair it owing to the nearness of 
the enemy. Nothing was wanting, ruts, holes, 
fencing wire, overturned fencing posts, etc. 
The squadron occupied some trenches on the 
right. These were arrow-shaped, and were the 
nearest trenches to the enemy. 

Seventeen of us held the main trench, and 
in an adjacent one were two marines with 
a small pom-pom trench gun. These were 
called trenches; in reality they consisted of 
sloping beams laid against an embankment of 
stones and sand-bags. We had to crawl into 
them, and, once in, we were condemned to 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 127 

immobility. We could not even sit down 
without bending our heads. Little by little 
the cold took hold of us, beginning with our 
feet, and we felt as if we were transformed into 
blocks of ice. 

The wind brought us a suggestive odour, 
which mingled with the smell of rotting litter 
on which we were lying. We felt inclined to 
vomit. Day came and brought the need for 
absolute immobility. It was impossible to 
risk oneself outside the trench, even flat on 
one's belly, until night-time. M. Chatelin 
and I shivered side by side, and inspected the 
horizon through field-glasses. On the left 
we saw some suspicious smoke, and the same 
distance off, on the right, we found the ex- 
planation of the stink we had smelt on our 
arrival. A score of German corpses were there, 
caught between their barbed-wire entangle- 
ment and ours, and destined to rot there for an 
undetermined period. They were in all sorts 
of poses and horribly mutilated. Some bodies 
were without heads, some heads and arms were 
lying separated and all the bodies were in 
convulsive postures. A number of crows were 
disputing their bodies, as were some half -wild 
cats, which refused the meat we offered them — 
a pretty sight indeed; happily there were no 
French bodies amongst them. 



128 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

The artillery opened the ball about eight 
o'clock. We were almost in the middle, and 
well below the trajectory of the shells. We 
saw some shells strike their target — some 
farms, that fell to pieces — but many missed. 
That, however, was of no account. 

From the direction of Lombaertzyde a 
sudden thunder resounded, and for the whole 
of the afternoon the earth was shaken by a 
bombardment which nothing could describe. 
To represent it one must think of a furious sea, 
an express at full speed, lowing of cattle, cat- 
calls, creakings; one must think of a mixture 
of all these sounds forming a sort of savage 
harmony. In the rays of the rising sun Lom- 
baertzyde was crowned with plumes of black 
and white smoke, made by the bursting shells. 

Nothing else happened till evening. The 
night was less monotonous, for, in spite of 
the pitiless moonlight, one could go out. We 
looked on with much interest at a raid by two 
aeroplanes, which marked down an enemy's 
trench and a supply convoy with luminous 
bombs. An instant afterwards the "75's" 
hit hard. Towards midnight seven shots were 
let off from the listening post. I said to my- 
self, "At last, here comes the attack." I 
shook up my men, benumbed with cold and 
sleep ; but dead silence again fell. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 129 

It was freezing hard enough to split stones. 
Over a surface of several kilometres the newly 
formed ice cracked and made one think that 
an advance was taking place. Little Duval, 
in a moment of hallucination, fired on the 
dead bodies, mistaking them for skirmishers. 

From time to time an imperceptible breeze 
distinctly brought us the sound of the enemy 
at work. We heard the blows of mallets, 
used doubtless to consolidate his wire en- 
tanglements. I made our freezing men do 
the same. 

M. Chatelin and I walked up and down or 
made reconnaissances simply for the sake of 
keeping on the move. On the plain I stumbled 
on the body of a dragoon between two frozen 
pools. His head was wrapped up in hay, but 
he was frozen so hard that we could not move 
him. I tried to lift him by his belt, but it 
broke in my hands. Two cats, a white one 
and an Angora, seemed annoyed at being 
deranged. Oh, the horror of it ! 

Decatoire had his feet frost-bitten and was 
unable to walk. M. Chatelin and I returned 
to the trench, and, huddled up one against the 
other, we passed the remaining hours of that 
trying night in shivering. 

At five o'clock the 5th Chasseurs relieved us. 



130 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

Long weeks followed, during which the 
cavalry, become useless on account of the 
time of year and the novel trench warfare, 
remained inactive far from the front in muddy 
rest-camps. 

Officers and men were sent by turns into the 
trenches for eight or ten days at a time, being 
taken there in motor omnibuses. 

When we returned to regimental head- 
quarters we led an ordinary barrack life there. 
The admirable unity which made us all 
brothers in the firing line had a tendency to 
relax in face of the pettiness of ordinary 
military duty. Peace-time jealousies showed 
themselves during our forced inactivity, when 
our tour of service did not call us far from our 
horses to dismounted fighting. For this 
reason, and as I was desirous of living again 
and renewing acquaintance with those in- 
toxicating hours to which one becomes accus- 
tomed as a necessary factor in life, preferring, 
in short, to perform the duties of a foot-soldier 
with real infantry men, knowing their duties 
and suitably equipped, rather than to de- 
generate into a dismounted dragoon, I asked 
to be appointed 2nd Lieutenant in an infantry 
regiment as soon as the ministerial circular con- 
cerning cavalry non-commissioned appeared. 
Fifteen days later my request was granted. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 131 

I was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant on February 
3rd. The 22nd were at Volckerinkove. M. 
de Vesian told me of my appointment, and a 
few hours later I was sent with the others who 
had been recently promoted — Fueminville, 
Marin and Paris — to the headquarters of the 
5th Division, and from there to Poperinghe 
to the headquarters of the 9th Army Corps. 

In spite of my decision, taken freely of my 
own accord, I was very sorry to leave the 22nd. 
It was for me a page turned over, something 
finished. I passed down the ranks and shook 
hands with all those comrades by whose side I 
had marched, slept and fought for six months, 
and then, without looking behind me, I set off 
on horseback on a fine sunny day. 

Having been posted to the 90th Regiment of 
the Line, I followed a course of instruction at 
Vlamertinghe, with the newly gazetted officers 
from Saint-Cyr. After fifteen days of a mono- 
tonous and tranquil life the class broke up on 
the 2 1st. On the morning of the 22nd I re- 
joined the 90th, and the same evening we left 
to go into action. 

In February I was again in the trenches, 
those which I occupied affording me great 
amusement. We left at half -past eight in the 
morning, and we had eighteen kilometres to 
march. At Ypres we made a few minutes' 



132 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

halt on the edge of the pavement before the 
celebrated Cloth Hall. I looked eagerly 
around me, wishing to fix the sights which met 
my eyes. They were intensely picturesque 
and of peculiar interest. When the war is over 
shall we ever again see such a picture? It is 
not likely. 

Night had come. It was a time propitious 
for reliefs, hence everywhere feverish activity 
reigned. All lights in the town were masked. 
Under a moon, luminous as shining chalk, the 
cathedral and the Cloth Hall were of a 
dazzling white, which made the gaping wounds 
which the shells have made in the stonework 
all the blacker and more apparent. 

The scudding clouds masked the moon for a 
moment, and everything faded from view, or 
rather, as in a kaleidoscope, the ever-changing 
shadows changed the forms of the ruins. 
Sudden beams of light rested for a moment 
like furtive phantoms on the stonework, to 
disappear a second later. On the edge of the 
horizon star shell were being thrown up, 
pitting the night with a white or green fixed 
star, or appearing as a diamond spray held by 
some invisible hand, to sparkle a moment and 
then vanish. The silence was cut by the 
regular cadence of the march of the various 
companies towards the neighbouring sectors. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 133 

They debouched from every cross-road. 
There were French, Belgians and English, 
the latter whistling in chorus, "It's a long 
long way to Tipperary, " and keeping step to 
it. As soon as they saw us by common accord 
they started the Marseillaise — a charming 
courtesy — and strange and rapid dialogues 
were exchanged between the "poilus" and the 
"Tommies" in a language so untranslatable, 
so indescribable, that most of the men burst 
out laughing at hearing themselves speak. 
Then some guns crossed the place at the trot 
making a deafening noise. 

Every unit had its destination, its appointed 
place and perfect order prevailed. Those 
back from the trenches are glad at the prospect 
of rest; those going there are light-hearted 
also, and so the active ant-heap swarms with 
busy people. 

From time to time shell would fall in the 
town, crumbling still further the marvellous 
Cloth Hall or causing irreparable damage to 
the humble house of some inoffensive civilian. 
It was stupid and useless. 

From Zonnebeck onwards the ground was 
swept by rifle fire, and we had to cross a horse- 
shoe sector exposed to fire from all sides. It 
was impossible to find cover, and the relief was 
extremely difficult and dangerous. Then it 



134 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

was that I made acquaintance with the new 
and the unknown. 

New trenches, new customs. We groped 
our way through a little pine wood. Every 
now and then a bullet struck the trunk of a 
tree with such a loud and sharp sound that the 
drum of one's ear was all but torn. Insensibly 
the company advanced along the cutting 
which got deeper and deeper under ground. 
Soon one was in up to the shoulders, and the 
deeper the communication trench got the 
deeper we got into mud and water. I pre- 
tended to myself that we were figures in some 
"attraction" at Luna Park or the Magic City. 
We were in a labyrinth which turned to the 
right and left, doubled back on itself and got 
deeper and more difficult at each step, while 
"the bees" passed whistling over our heads. 

There was a sudden stop, just as I had given 
up hope of ever seeing the end. The section in 
front of me emerged into a trench, and a ray 
of light fell on the wet clay at my feet. A 
form leaned out of a hole, and a voice said to 
me, "This way, sir; this is your command 
post." Hardly had I entered when the cur- 
tain which masked the door fell again, to shut 
in the light. I found myself in a tiny square 
room constructed entirely of rough logs, that 
is to say of the trunks of pine trees. It was 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 135 

buried under a mountain of earth, very solidly- 
beaten down, and it had a brick fireplace in 
which a good coke fire blazed (within 100 
metres of the enemy). There was a bed, or 
rather a straw mattress, which exactly filled 
up the middle of this "casba. " The other 
half was taken up by a stand on which were 
ranged miscellaneous objects — gum boots, tin 
boxes, grenades, petards, flares, etc. One 
could not stand up, but lying down one felt 
like a king. 

The network of trenches which unites the 
sections was so complicated that I lost myself 
in it every time. In the early morning I made 
a reconnaissance of the neighbouring sections. 
At places the parapet became so low that, 
even by stooping, one was not completely 
under cover. My presence was hailed by a 
salvo which passed whistling over my head. 

24th February, igi$ '. — It snowed last night. 
The trenches are white and my "poilus" are 
cold. And so am I! A man of my section 
has just been wounded in the head by a bullet 
which ricochetted off a bayonet. But, gener- 
ally speaking, the Germans leave us in peace. 

Six o'clock. — My trench has been demolished 
in part by a " 1 05 . " We shall have to work all 
night to repair it. 



136 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

26th February, 191 5. — Under cover of fog I 
left my shelter and had some wire entangle- 
ments made. The men were able to work 
without drawing fire. Per contra a German 
patrol came exploring, counting on the fog for 
concealment. Having arrived opposite Re- 
gues's section, they must have lost their way 
and pitched straight on to us. We hit three 
of them. All the morning, fifty metres off, we 
saw them wriggling and raising their legs, and 
we heard them crying out. It was impossible 
to go to bring them in, the Germans would 
have fired on us. One of them signalled that 
he was ready to surrender. He put up his 
hands and cried, "Kamarad, Kamarad," so 
he can't be badly wounded. We could see 
him rise, unbuckle his belt and throw off his 
pack. My men, very pleased, were ready to 
receive him with open arms, but he regained 
his own lines at a bound. We let off a 
salvo, but the "Kamarad" had already dis- 
appeared. The two others kept on wriggling 
like worms. 

2nd March, 19 15. — I am occupying a new 
sector, not nearly so good as the first; trench 
fallen in, full of water, communications diffi- 
cult, no comfortable command post; I sleep 
on the hard ground in the cold. My pre- 
decessor, when giving me my instructions, 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 137 

warned me that for two days past we had 
been badly shelled. 

3rd March. — At 8.30 the first shell, a " 105, " 
came over and pitched some metres from my 
post. I was almost thrown out of the dug-out; 
earth and mud flew in all directions, and shell 
fragments fell with a sharp noise. Some 
moments after a second one came over, then a 
third and then, for three-quarters of an hour, 
they fell without ceasing. 

All the shells fell on my left. The men 
were a little pale in face of this form of danger, 
against which there is nothing to be done. 
After a quarter of an hour the trench became 
untenable, the shelters, the parapets, the dug- 
out, were all tumbling down. Sometimes the 
shock and the displacement of air threw us 
in bunches one against the other. 

I remained at the command post until the 
next dug-out was knocked to pieces, burying a 
man under the ruins. I then caused the whole 
section to be evacuated, except by a watcher, 
and I asked hospitality from a 2nd lieutenant 
of machine-guns. 

At last the storm calmed down and I sent 
everyone back to his place. The trench was a 
veritable timber yard, and rifles and mess 
tins littered the ground. The parapet by the 
side of my shelter was knocked down level 



138 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

with the ground, leaving a gaping opening 
that we must repair to-night. 

Six o'clock. — After the tension of such a 
morning I heard with pleasure the cry of 
" Stand to your arms. " Each man new to his 
rifle; they too, I think, were pleased. I had 
gone back to see my comrade the machine- 
gunner, but it did not take me long to cover 
the thirty or forty metres of trench which 
separated me from my men. 

How good a thing it was to hear this crackle 
of rifle fire after the disquieting row of the 
"105V! "Stand to the machine-gun." I 
saw with pleasure the four men at their gun, 
and I admired the graceful movement of the 
man who crouched to fire and who, uncon- 
sciously, assumed the posture of an animal 
ready to spring. Unfortunately the enemy 
were not "for it." At our first shots the 
Germans got back into their trenches. 

27th March. — We arrived yesterday in the 
second line, or rather in reserve. The huts are 
in a pine wood, surrounded with ridges. We 
arrived by moonlight. The bullets passed high 
and struck the tops of the trees. These huts 
are in the form of a redskin's wigwam, made 
of earth and sacking. To-day we went hunting 
with revolvers and we killed a rabbit! We 
cooked it ourselves and enjoyed it for dinner. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 139 

28th March. — The enemy leaves us in peace. 
Not a shell, not the least little "77" We 
went hunting again and brought back a 
pheasant. After supper Maugenot and I 
intend to go and play cards with Captain 
Lametz, a little in front of our trenches. We 
must cross a glacis in front of the ridge; the 
bullets come over there head high. We slipped 
along the edge of the wood to take advantage 
of the lie of the land; and then all at once we 
said, "So much the worse," and we crossed 
the field at its widest part. We jumped the 
parapet of an old trench and we arrived at the 
1st company. Captain Lametz has his post 
buried in a wood. We played, seated cross- 
legs on the ground, by candlelight. The rest 
of the post were asleep, rolled up in blankets. 
The moonlight peered into the dug-out each 
time that the wind blew aside the canvas of 
the tent. In coming back Maugenot and I 
were almost stopped by bullets, chance bullets, 
be it understood, which fell with regularity 
and in disconcerting abundance, often, as they 
struck the ground, hitting some shell frag- 
ments which would ring like glasses knocked 
together. 

To save time Maugenot suggested taking a 
short cut, and he succeeded in entangling us 
in an inextricable network of barbed wire. It 



140 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

was too late to draw back, we had to jump and 
crawl. We arrived, however, at the hut safe 
and sound, but our greatcoats were badly 
torn. 

2Qth March. — A man had been killed some 
little time ago. While I write I am looking at 
the cortege which has brought him back. The 
body, a little bent, is carried on an improvised 
stretcher by four men and is wrapped up in the 
canvas of a tent, tinted red where it has 
touched his wound. The little procession 
advances with difficulty in the narrow com- 
munication trench, and every two or three 
steps a drop of blood falls and stains the 
ground like a star, brown-red, and the cortege 
may be traced by these as far as the grave. 

Such was the daily life of almost the whole 
army during the winter months. Though 
monotonous, I have thought it well to trans- 
scribe these few passages from my daily 
journal, for they are human documents. In 
spring the benumbed army stirred itself, 
stretched its legs and awoke to the fact that a 
new era was about to begin. The change took 
place with the greatest mystery. News, come 
no one knew whence, began to circulate. 

When we left Belgium on the 30th March 
some extravagant hypotheses took shape. 
Haute-Alsace, the Argonne, the Dardanelles 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 141 

and Turkey were spoken of. The least 
bellicose would have it that we were to rest 
near Lyons; but no one knew anything, and 
each day we went farther south-west, being 
ignorant even of the billets we would occupy 
that evening. 

So we passed Saint-Omer, Arneke, Pilens, 
Blingel, Frevent, Avesne-le-Comte, etc. . . . 
and we approached Arras, whose town hall 
and belfry we saw one morning profiled in a 
blue haze against a spectral sky. 

On passing through Arneke on the 8th of 
April we marched past General Foch headed 
by our band. When the regiment had passed 
by he sent for the officers. We were all 
presented to him, and he had us formed up 
in a circle to say a few words to us. 

Listening to the General was like experien- 
cing a species of shock. He hammered out his 
words and scanned his phrases in a manner 
which made us feel ill at ease. His speech was 
a flagellation, and we felt a sort of moral 
abaissement as a result of it. His look seized 
upon and held us. He brought us to bay and 
then crushed us. 

First he spoke to us of our mission, of the 
utility of training the men in view of the 
coming fatigues. "Train their arms, train 
their legs, train their muscles, train their backs. 



142 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

You possess fine qualities, draw on them from 
the soles of your feet, if necessary, but get 
them into your heads. I have no use for 
people who are said to be animated by good 
intentions. Good intentions are not enough; 
I want people who are determined to get there 
and who do." 

There are shreds of his phrases that remain 
graven on my memory, curt short phrases, 
punctuated by a sharp gesture, or by an in- 
describable look of the eye: "If you want to 
overturn that wall, don't blunt your bayonet 
point on it; what is necessary is to break it, 
shatter it, overturn it, stamp on it and walk 
over the ruins, for we are going to walk over 
ruins. If we have not already done so " — and 
here he suddenly lowered his voice and gave 
it an intonation almost mysterious — "it is 
because we were not ready. We lacked ex- 
plosives, bombs, grenades, minerwerfers, 
which now we have. And we are going to be 
able to strike, for we have a stock such as you 
cannot even have an idea of. We are going to 
swamp the enemy, strike him everywhere at 
once: in his defences, in his morale, harass 
him, madden him, crush him; we will march 
over nothing but ruins. " 

Then he went off quite naturally, without 
any theatrical effect. He said just what he 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 143 

had to say, and he did not add a word too 
many. He saluted us: "I hope, gentlemen, 
to have the honour of seeing you again." A 
moment later his motor-car was carrying him 
off towards Cassel, leaving us deeply stirred 
and impressed by his spoken words and no less 
influenced by his personality. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ATTACK AT LOOS 

9th May, 19 15 

f^N April the 29th, ten days before the 
^-' attack, we were taking our last great 
rest at Noyelette in a setting which resembled 
a scene from a comic opera. The apple trees 
were in full bloom and the blossom fell like 
snow. In the radiant peace of early spring we 
lay on the scented grass, listening to the 
ripples on the little stream. For many of us 
it was destined to be a last pleasure and a last 
caress which Nature was pleased to lavish on 
those of her children who were about to die. 

6th May : In the first line. — We relieved the 

256th in the first-line trenches near Mazin- 

garbe, on the road to Lens. That relief by a 

reserve regiment confirmed the rumour of an 

offensive. As we passed through Nceux-les- 

Mines and Mazingarbe even the civilians said 

144 



IMPRESSIONS OF A FRENCH TROOPER 145 

to us, "Sure enough you are going to attack, 
aren't you? See to it that you push them 
back once and for all!" 

yth May. — The great moment, so long 
expected, has come. To-morrow the 10th 
Army is going to attack on the Lille-Arras 
front. My battalion is to advance straight 
forward with Hill 70 for objective on this 
side of Loos. I made a reconnaissance of the 
sector. To-night I am going to inspect the 
German barbed-wire entanglements with 
Sti valet. I am quite calm and very well 
prepared; my only fear is that I may do 
badly and commit some fault. That the men 
will go forward, I am sure. My battalion 
forms the first line, the 2nd and the 3rd come 
next, then the 125th and the 68th line regi- 
ments, while the 256th and the 281st are on 
the right and left and are to converge to a 
point. 

Two o'clock p.m. — The French guns are 
beginning to shell the enemy. The batteries 
are landing shell just in front of our trench 
and so near that I am beginning to think that 
there must be an error in the range. The 
mere fact of having to wait is a torture, to 
know nothing and to say, "Is it to be in five 
minutes, this evening or to-morrow?" My 
heart beats hard and my throat is dry. I 



146 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

would give anything for the order to attack, 
for I know that then I should at once recover 
my calm. 

The four sections have orders to advance to 
their front towards the Lens road, to take the 
German trenches and then make for Hill 70 
by way of Loos. I distributed some asphyxiat- 
ing bombs, hand grenades to my section, and 
little bags containing cotton previously soaked 
in a bisulphite and which must be dipped 
again into lime water at the last moment and 
introduced into the mouth and nostrils to 
neutralise the effects of asphyxiating gas. 

Four o'clock. — The shelling is still going on, 
but it has lost the unheard-of violence with 
which it started. The remainder of the guns 
are to arrive to-night and consequently the 
attack cannot take place before to-morrow. 

Everyone is at work; the Engineers are 
making steps and finishing saps; Artillery- 
men walk about in the communication trenches 
with range-finders with which they accom- 
plish mysterious rites, asking me politely to 
move as I am in the way. Officers of all 
battalions are reconnoitring the sector, and the 
men are sewing bits of white canvas on their 
packs so that they may be recognized at a 
distance by our artillery. One would say 
that a costume play was in course of being 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 147 

mounted and that the last preparations were 
being made for the opening performance. 

At ten minutes to nine I returned to my 
command post. I examined my revolver 
carefully, took off my tunic and put my money 
and my papers in my trousers pocket. I 
slipped my cloak on over my shirt, put my 
revolver in the inside pocket and I got out 
of the trench. I gave a last warning to my 
men not to fire, even if they heard firing. 

Stivalet was there; we got over the parapet 
at nine o'clock exactly, and we had chosen a 
bit of known ground between two chevaux de 
frise. It was very dark; scarcely had we 
started than a star shell lit up the sky. We 
threw ourselves flat on the ground on our 
faces. I felt the wet grass and moist soil on 
my cheeks and on the palms of my hands. I 
listened to my breathing and I could not feel 
the beatings of my heart. I was perfectly 
calm. 

For two or three minutes we groped our way 
across the wire of the chevaux de frise. When 
we had passed it we came on an old network of 
rusted barbed wire all broken up by shell fire, 
and our feet and cloaks got entangled in it. 
We crawled on our hands and knees and each 
time that a star shell burst we threw ourselves 
flat, as before. 



148 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

The critical moment had arrived. Stivalet 
hailed me in a low voice, "This is a rotten trip 
we are making." He whispered in my ear, 
"It is too dark, we shall see nothing. " I said 
to him, "All right, you stay here, I am going 
farther on." 

I crawled on alone. I felt perturbed at being 
alone in the black night with all these rifle 
muzzles pointed at me. I was at the mercy of 
a flare. I went on as well as I could, without a 
sound, trying to blend with the ground. I 
went on for I don't know how long or how far. 
Then I looked up and I saw the German en- 
tanglements close beside me. I distinctly 
heard talking going on; unfortunately I did 
not understand a word of it. There was no 
object in delaying further, my mission was 
over. I had seen their defences; they were 
only chevaux de frise, united by barbed wire. 
As I turned, two rockets went off and crossed. 
I thought that I was lost and I stayed still 
with my head on my arms and my face to the 
ground, biting the grass; but nothing hap- 
pened; not a shot was fired. 

I started off then to crawl with a speed 
which astonished myself, using my feet, 
shoulders and elbows to help me along. I 
arrived at the spot where I had left Stivalet, 
and in no time we had jumped back into our 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 149 

trench. My clothes were so caked with mud 
that they stuck to me like a jersey. I made a 
report to Maugenot, whom I found asleep. 
On the table of the dug-out was a note from 
the Major. The attack was to take place to- 
morrow. The day would be given over to a 
minute reconnaissance of the sector, and 
everything would be ready for the attack, to 
take place probably during the night of the 
8th-9th. 

8th May, 1915. — Unless counter-ordered 
the attack is to take place to-morrow at six 
in the morning, after four consecutive hours 
of shell fire. There are a thousand guns 
behind us, one for every fifty metres of terrain 
to be battered. 

Nothing happened during the morning. 
New bombs were given out, and each man was 
to have at least one. From two in the after- 
noon the artillery corrected its shooting, 
which is equivalent in ordinary times to a 
very violent bombardment. 

From my parapet I followed the phases of 
this correction. The redan on the Lens road 
blew up at two o'clock; the defences before 
my trench were knocked to bits. At this 
moment, 6.40, the artillery fired a little short. 
The men in the trench could not get on with 
their dinners; they were covered with earth 



150 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

and little bits of steel, and the water fatigue 
had some splinters sent among them — two 
men of the 5th were wounded. 

I have got for my section 7 asphyxiating 
bombs, 9 Beszzi bombs, 48 hand grenades and 
5 terrible chedite bombs, which I have primed 
myself, and of which I intend to carry two. 

What a carnage is being prepared for to- 
morrow! I remembered the prophecy of 
Father Johannes, "Only the great princes and 
the great captains will be buried; there will 
be so many dead and wounded that the bodies 
will be burnt on pyres whose flames will mount 
to the skies." 

gth May, 1915, 4.30 a.m. — I am ordered to 
line up my men. A company of Engineers has 
joined us in order to excavate a communicating 
trench as soon as we have cleared out. Far 
away on the left — probably from the English 
lines — the guns are firing without interrup- 
tion. It sounds like a hoarse roar. 

5.15 and no order to attack has been 
received; it seems long in coming. 

The guns were still thundering on the left, 
but ours were silent. I would give a lot to 
know! 

Seven o'clock. — Orders have come; we are to 
attack at 10 o'clock precisely. There is to be 
no signal; all our watches have been syn- 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 151 

chronised. We are all to start together from 
our trenches at the same time. We shelled the 
enemy violently for an hour, but, as that was 
too little, we are going to shell them again 
from 9 to 10. The big winged bombs made a 
thunderous din; we could see them rise in the 
air like shuttlecocks and fall lightly to earth 
again. They looked as though they were going 
to rebound, but they burst at once, each like 
a miniature volcano in eruption. 

For the second time I was astonished to 
find myself so calm. I could not realise that 
in so short a time (what are two hours?) there 
was going to be a wild rush, a hand-to-hand 
fight, hideous and disfigured corpses every- 
where, and perhaps death for me. I had only 
the fixed idea that everything was going well. 
I was acutely conscious that I was responsible 
for the lives of fifty men. 

Though wounded at the beginning of the 
attack, and sole survivor of all the officers of 
the company and of a neighbouring company 
of the 1 14th regiment of the line, I was, never- 
theless, still able to carry on till 8 o'clock at 
night. 

At 9 o'clock A.M. I precipitated the ammoni- 
acal solution and all the men soaked their pads 
in it. Everyone had his bomb. While I was 



152 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

finishing these last preparations shells and 
bombs seemed to crush the enemy's lines. 
The noise was deafening and the smoke 
suffocating and blinding. I should like to 
shut my eyes and pass in review each scene 
which followed, forgetting none. In a few 
moments I consider that I lived the sum total 
of a lifetime. 

At a quarter to ten all were lined up, pack 
on back. The section of Engineers stuck to 
the communicating trench so as not to hinder 
our movements. I placed myself in the centre 
and took out my watch; still ten minutes to 
go! I called in a loud voice, "Five minutes, " 
"Two minutes. " I had a stealthy look at the 
men and I saw on their faces so tense an 
expression, something so fixed, that they 
seemed to be in a trance. 

As I cried, "Only half a minute more!" I 
saw the left of the company starting off; they 
had some metres start of me. At all costs we 
must keep touch, so I shouted, "Forward," 
and ran straight at the German line, without 
seeing or hearing anything. I had a vague 
consciousness that the "75" guns had not 
yet increased their range, but we were no 
longer our own masters. Thousands of men, 
their minds fixed on the same purpose, rushed 
forward blindly. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 153 

As I arrived at the first German entangle- 
ment I turned round. Everyone had followed ; 
the men were at my heels. A second later we 
were leaping over the parapet of the enemy's 
first line. I yelled, "Don't get into the com- 
municating trench; the trench is empty, except 
for a few stragglers; get on and seize the 
second line." 

The blue cloaks bounded forward together 
and the bayonets shone under a burning sun, 
for there was not a cloud in the sky. 

Now, with our heads down, we entered the 
zone of Hell. 

There is no word, sound or colour that can 
give an idea of it. To prevent our advance the 
Germans had made a barrier of fire, and we 
had to go through a sort of suffocating vapour. 
We went through sheaves of fire, from which 
burst forth percussion and time shells at such 
short intervals that the soil opened every 
moment under our feet. I saw, as in a dream, 
tiny silhouettes, drunk with battle, charging 
through the smoke. 

The terrified Germans, caught between their 
own artillery fire and our bayonets, sprang up 
from everywhere ; some cried for mercy ; others 
turned round like madmen, whilst others again 
threw themselves upon us to drive us back. 

Shells had made ravages in the ranks. I 



154 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

saw groups of five or six crushed and mown 
down. I caught a momentary glimpse of Petit, 
the corporal, at the head of a group of men, 
and I forgot everything else and shouted to 
him, "Go it: bravo, Petit!" His Herculean 
figure, moulded in a woollen jersey, was 
standing on a hillock, wielding his rifle like a 
windmill. Careless of shot and shell, his 
terrible bayonet running with blood, he seemed 
the very incarnation of the war. All my life 
I shall see him, bareheaded, covered with 
blood and sweat, leading the others on to 
carnage; and the blue sky behind. 

My section and I kept pressing on, and we 
were now within a few metres of the last of the 
German lines. At every step grey uniforms 
now surged. I discharged my revolver to 
right and left. Cries and moans rose and fell 
in the infernal din of that struggle. 

In a second we should be occupying the 
enemy's last positions. What remained of my 
section followed me blindly. I put my foot 
on the parapet and cried, "Forward, lads, 
here we are!" then I felt as though someone 
had suddenly given me a brutal blow in the 
back with the butt-end of a rifle. I let go my 
revolver and the chedite bomb, which I had 
in my left hand, and I rolled to the bottom of 
a shell hole. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 155 

I was hit ! 

In a flash I remembered a phrase of my 
orderly's, overheard by chance yesterday, "If 
anything happens to the little lieutenant he 
won't be left behind," and a moment later 
this brave fellow, himself wounded in the arm, 
was at my side, and with two or three others, 
carried me to the trench. In front of us noth- 
ing was left, not a defence, not a wire entan- 
glement. We had carried the German lines 
to their uttermost limits. 

We at once set to work to dig ourselves in, 
whilst the men who were not digging kept a 
look-out. We asked ourselves from what 
direction the Germans would try to outflank 
us, for we knew nothing about the trenches 
that had been carried. All at once I saw two 
of them coming out of a little communicating 
trench with their bayonets at the charge. I 
blew out the brains of the first; the second, a 
veritable lad of about sixteen, had a terrified 
expression which I shall never forget. He 
yelled, and his strident cries made me shudder; 
but my pistol went off, and he fell on the 
ground on his face. 

During the whole of the attack I had not for 
an instant seen my company commander, and 
I wondered where he was. My colour-sergeant 
told me that the Major and he had been killed, 



156 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

that Lieutenant Desessart was badly wounded 
and that Lieutenant Regues and I were the 
only officers left in the company. Regues 
took command, and, seated on the parapet, 
superintended the preparations for defence. 
The guns were silent. . . . Alone the whistle 
of bullets was heard, and warning cries were 
raised: "Look out on the left; look out on the 
right; they are coming from such and such a 
trench." 

Then a bullet struck Regues fair on the 
head. He rolled over at my feet, and the sole 
command devolved on me. I myself was 
wounded; the blood was running from my 
back, and my movements were paralysed. 
My men wanted me to go back, but I stiffened 
myself up with the energy of despair. Some- 
one passed me a flask of ether and I propped 
myself against the parapet. I was alone in 
command; I had all my faculties about me, 
and I determined to stay there whatever 
happened. 

Up till two o'clock nothing did happen. We 
feverishly dug shelters to fire from, and made 
traverses to protect the trench which was in 
part open to enfilade. As far as the road 
everything had gone well, but, from that 
point on, connection was broken. The rest of 
the 90th were behind and parallel with me, 



OP A FRENCH TROOPER 157 

some metres off; the Germans there Had 
retained their positions. Though we could 
not see them, they were there quite near, 
concealed, gone to earth but ready to spring 
on us. 

Lying almost helpless at the foot of the 
trench I gave my orders, which the men, one 
and all, carried out with remarkable presence 
of mind. Enervating hours slowly slipped by. 
The sun scorched the trench; some of the 
bodies took on a deep yellow colour, and their 
wounds were horrible. 

To stop our reinforcements the Germans 
pitched shells behind the first lines. In the 
communicating trenches, where the Engineers, 
the 125th and the 68th, were massed, they 
must, I felt, be having a hot time. Even in the 
trench shells fell both before and behind. I 
had three men killed. Grossain had his head 
carried away. 

With midday came some relaxation. Work 
eased off a little; the men rummaged in their 
haversacks; Pillard brought me some cigars, 
Henry Clays, and some Egyptian cigarettes. 
Mayet dressed my wound in a summary 
fashion, passing his hand through the rent in 
my cloak. The opening was as big as my fist. 
I suffered horrible pain. 

The sergeant and I, nevertheless, explored 



158 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

the captured sector. The trenches have been 
knocked in by shell. In certain places it was 
open ground for 25 metres; in other parts 
corpses obstructed the way. As we went by, 
some Germans, lying on their backs right in 
the sun, opened their eyes and said, "Ich 
durste. " We had no time to stop, the guns 
might open fire again at any moment, and it 
was essential to find some means of communi- 
cating with the Colonel. 

When I got back to my men I found nothing 
changed. Mayet, fine fellow that he is, was 
keeping a good look-out. The trench which 
barred the road was consolidated, and we 
placed a machine-gun in it. I took under my 
command a company on my left, as it had no 
officer left. 

At half-past one a kind of agitation, a 
tremor, ran from man to man, as if the whole 
company had received an electric shock; yet 
there was no cry, no shot fired. Yet everyone 
realised that the counter-attack was about to 
be launched. 

I was amazed at the gaiety and good humour 
which prevailed. I wanted to say a few words 
regarding their conduct, but there was little 
need to sustain their morale. They shut me 
up by shouting, "Long live the Lieutenant." 
I was too overcome with emotion to reply. 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 159 

All of a sudden there came a burst of mus- 
ketry. It was sharp and brutal, and there was 
no hesitation about it. One felt that it was 
not the sort of musketry fire that one might 
expect from dispirited men, firing without 
taking the trouble to aim; on the contrary, 
each shot had its target. I looked through 
my field-glasses in its direction; it was on my 
left, about three hundred metres off. 

The Germans, who were masters of a com- 
munication trench in front of us, debouched 
from it and tried to rush us in column of fours. 
They did not gain an inch of ground. Each 
section of fours was shot down. 

One cannot but render homage to such 
soldiers. A whole company was wiped out, not 
a man rose again after he fell, not a man re- 
treated. The second counter-attack took 
shape on the right under the same conditions. 
The Germans were massed in a communica- 
tion trench parallel to the road. A little later, 
again on the left, the enemy profited by a 
small wood to concentrate his men and to 
attempt a sortie, and this again was stopped 
short. 

They seemed to have resigned themselves to 
doing what we were doing. By the aid of a 
periscope we could see them as far as their 
waist-belts. They were smoking and waiting. 



l6o IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

To put one's head up was to court death. 
Maugenot was lying just beyond the parapet 
on the grass with his face to the ground. 
Already he was the colour of wax. I deter- 
mined to have him picked up at night. 

The Colonel, at three o'clock, sent me the 
7th company, under Captain Dupont, as a 
reinforcement. I told him that I wanted to 
stay where I was. That it was I and my 
men who had taken this ground, and therefore 
that it was ours by right; so the Captain 
settled down on the right, and at least I was 
no longer alone. 

I could gain no clue as to the real state of 
affairs from the complete silence of the German 
artillery. There was a noise of waggons com- 
ing and going on the higher ground, and this 
seemed to me to mean a fresh supply of muni- 
tions. It was unfortunately impossible to 
communicate with our own artillery. 

Seated at the bottom of the trench, I began 
to feel my senses deserting me. When I was 
asked for orders I racked my brains in vain. I 
could not find the right thing to say. I tried 
to joke with the men, but profound melan- 
choly possessed me, for I began to realise that 
I was no longer good for anything. 

At 7 o'clock at night came the order for 
the attack which was preparing. "The 3rd 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 161 

battalion will carry out the attack on the 
village of Loos, taking the steeple as directing 
point, and joining up on the left with the 1 14th. 
The first line units — the 3rd, 7th, 4th and 8th 
companies — will be pushed forward by the 
attacking battalion. Preparations for this 
movement must be made as soon as possible, 
but no move forward is to be made till further 
orders. — Signed Alquier. " 

Night fell rapidly. I was anxious to speak 
to the Colonel before the new attack if I could 
get to him, and so I handed over command to 
Mayet. My wound hurt me horribly. It felt 
as if my left shoulder were being torn from my 
body, as though indeed I were being quartered. 
I had doubts as to whether I could get to 
where I should find him, but I knew what 
could be done if the will to do were strong. 
Alas! I was not to see the company again, 
nor was I to succeed in finding the Colonel. 

On the way I walked like a drunken man, 
staggering from one wall of the trench to the 
other. Sometimes I had to climb over pyra- 
mids of bodies, sometimes I had to go right 
outside the trench, amidst the whistling of 
bullets and the noise of shells, which burst on 
all sides. I reflected sadly on how stupid it 
would be to be killed there, all alone, after 
having so miraculously escaped during the 



1 62 IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 

fight. I met some men of the Engineers, some 
prisoners and some messengers. Everyone 
was in a hurry, and I automatically repeated 
the same phrase to each, "Look out, I am a 
wounded officer, don't hustle me." I asked 
myself if it was possible to suffer more than I 
did. A sort of continuous groaning sound 
escaped me, my sight became blurred and I 
walked as if in delirium. 

I went round the same sector several times, 
asking everyone where the Colonel was. 

And they would ask me, "What Colonel?" 

I had forgotten, and then everything became 
vague. I met two men with fixed bayonets in 
charge of three prisoners. They gave me some 
red wine and took me along with them. We 
passed a factory whose broken machinery I 
saw profiled against the night sky. Then 
some stretcher-bearers picked me up and 
carried me to the neighbouring aid post. 
From there I was sent by ambulance to the 
divisional dressing station at Mazingarbe, 
where I passed the night. 

The building was plunged into complete 
darkness for fear of being marked down. Our 
big guns — the 120 long — were firing quite 
near, and at every round the walls trembled 
and the window-panes rattled. One could 
well picture oneself still in the thick of the 



OF A FRENCH TROOPER 163 

fight. The noise of musketry seemed to come 
from the garden, and I still remember clearly 
the sinister sights that I saw there. Dimly 
made out in the shadow, the wounded were 
lying on straw in rows on the ground. One 
only saw their silhouettes. There were infan- 
trymen, artillerymen and Algerian Light 
Infantry on whom the white dressings stood 
out sharply. Amidst the roar of the guns one 
would hear a long-drawn moan and some 
groans, cut short at times by incoherent 
phrases. All of them raved. Officers and men 
lived through the morning's battle once again, 
and brief commands were uttered, infinitely 
painful to listen to, "March in open order, by 
the right; stand by the machine-gun, " and so 
on. As I stretched myself on some straw in the 
least encumbered corner, I shivered with 
fever. The next morning we were all sent on 
to Nceux-les-Mines, and from there we left 
by train for we knew not where. 



INDEX 



Agadir, 17 

Alaire, Captain, killed, 52 

Allies, rally of, at Verberie, 79 

— meeting of, 133 

Alquier, orders received from, 

161 
Arneke, 141 
Arras, 141 
Authee, bivouac near, 36 

— departure from, 36 

Ave, French dragoons billeted 
at, 34 

— French squadron ambushed 

at, 35 

— French departure from, 35 



B 



Baron, 85, 86 

— Chateau of, pillaged by- 

Germans, 86 

Basteigne, 29, 34 

Bavarians, atrocities of, 76, 77 

Bazeille, burning of, by Ger- 
mans, 1870, 17 

Beauraing, arrival of French 
at, 35 

— departure of French from, 

35 

— ambush at, 35 

Belgium, welcome and hos- 
pitality of villages, 27, 28, 
29 

— re-entered by French, 96 

— departure from, 140 
Biesmeree, bivouac at, 38 
Billancourt, infantry action 

near, 87 



Bonneuil-en-Valois, surprise 
attack by Germans at, 51, 
52 

Bulow, Count von, 60 



Calonne-sur-la-Lys, 96 

Cary, General Langle de, 44, 

7i 

Cavalry, French, equipment of, 

23 

Chapin, Major, 106 
Charleroi, 39 
Chasseurs-E-cheval, charge of, 

45 
Chatelin, Lieut., 39, 67, 82, 

127, 129, 
Chauvenet, Lieut., killed, 35 
Chocques, enemy sighted at, 90 
— artillery action at, 91 
Clarques, return of French 

troops to, 112 
Clere, Lieut., 18, 123 
Compiegne, forest of, 63 

ambushed in, 63-5 

adventures in, 65-9 

Coxyde, 112 



Dangel, Sergeant-Major, death 

of, 64 
Desonney, Lieut., 106 
Dinant, siege of, by Germans, 

36 
— arrival of French wounded 

from, 37 
Dragoon, funeral of a, 124-5 



165 



166 



INDEX 



E 

Epehy, arrival at, 41 

— burning of, by Germans, 41 
Estaires, evacuation of, 93 

— attack at, 95 

— cemetery of, 94 
Estr£e-Saint-Denis, 84, 87 
d'Estrey, General, 71 



F 



Florennes, arrival at, 37 
Foch, General, 60, 71 

address by, 141-3 

army of, 44 

Folies, 90 

Franchet, General, 71 
French, General Lord John, 71 
Fueminville, 35 



Gembloux, retreat from, 31 

— triumphal entry into, 39 
Germans, atrocities of, 32-4, 

76-7, 83-4 

cavalry of, 31, 34, 87 

flight of, 34 

— retreat of, 43 
Gilocourt, 82, 86 
Gorgue, La, 95 
Grossain killed, 157 

H 

Hausen, 60 
Hill 70, 145 
Hougled, entry of, by French, 

— infantry and artillery at- 

tacks at, 98-101 



Johannes Father, quotation 

from, 150 
Jouillie, Major, 49, 56, 83 



Lametz, Captain, 139 
Landelies, arrival at, 40 
Laperrade, 18 
Lens road, French advance 

towards, 146 
German lines carried 

near, 154 

redan blown up, 149 

Liege, arrival of French 

dragoons at, 31 
Lille- Arras, front of, 145 
Lombaertzyde, bombardment 

of, 128 
Loos, French attack at, 150-5 

— German counter-attack at, 

z 59 

— preparations for attack at, 

144-7 
Lubek<5, 35 
Lys, bridge of, evacuated, 93 

M 

Magrin, Lieut., 18, 102, 104, 

I0 5 
Mahot, Captain, 113, 116 

Maindreville, M. de, German 

atrocities at chateau of, 

83 
Marne, battle of, 43 
Maugenot, 139, 160 

— report to, 149 
Maunoury, General, army of, 

44, 47, 71 . , 

Mazingarbe, relieved trenches 
at, 144 

— divisional dressing station 

at, 162 
Montcalm killed, 36 
Muno, arrival of French 

cavalry at, 26 

N 

Nesle, infantry action near, 87 
Nieuport-Ville, road to, 113 

bombardment of, 1 14- 

17, 119 
billeted at, 1 16-18 



INDEX 



167 



scenes at, 1 14-19 

Nceux-les-Mines, wounded sent 

to, 144, 163 
Noyelette, resting at, 144 

O 

Oise River, crossing of, 84 
Ostdinkerque, 113 
Outersteene, Belgian mani- 
festations to French, 96 



Paris, retreat of French cavalry 

towards, 41 
Parvillers, 88 
Petit, Corporal, 154 
Polignac, 18 
Poperinghe, 131 
Prussians, capture of Staff 

Officers, 48 

R 

Regues, Lieut., 156 
Rheims Cathedral, 14, 16 

— departure from, 13 

— scenes at, 20, 21, 23, 25 
Roberts, Lord, funeral of, 110- 

12 
Robillot, Colonel, 21, 24 



Saint-Martin, bivouac at, 38 

Saint-Omer, no 

Salverte, Captain de, 56, 68, 

82, 84 
Staden, village of, fighting at, 

97, 108 
Stivalet, 147-8 



Tarragon, Captain de, 56, 65, 
83, 85, 86, 102, 103, 104 



death of, 105 

Taube drops bombs, 50 
Taubes at Gembloux, 39 
Teint, 58 
Troene, fighting at, 45 

U 

Uhlans, 35, 56, 57, 62 
V 

Verberie, rally of French 
troops, at, 79, 80, 82 

— scenes at, 74-84 

Vigoureux, Captain, 112, 117 

Villers-Carbonel, artillery com- 
bat at, 41 

in flames, 41 

Villers-Cotteret, forest of, 49- 

51 

loss of French machine- 
guns at, 50 

fighting at, 51-4 

in hiding in, 54-7 

retreat from, 57-9 

Von Kluck, General, army of, 
47 

W 

Walloon district, the, 26 



Ypres, 131 

— Cloth Hall at, 132 

— Cathedral, at, 132 

— scenes at, 132-3 

— in the trenches near, 134- 

40 
Yser, 74, 123 



Zonnebeck, 133 



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